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THE 

MYSTERY OP OSIRIS; 

OR, 

EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 

A work setting forth the Egyptian Mythology in all its 
beauty and giving the inner and more sacred teachings of 
the Egyptian Initiation and explaining much concerning 
the greater Sex Mysteries as taught to the Initiates of the 
Egyptian Temples. 




BY DR. R, SWINBURNE- CLYMER, 
Assisted in Notes by F. Oscae Biberstein. 

Author of "Alchemy and the Alchemists," "Divine Alchemy, 
'International System of Alchemic (Magnetic) Therapeutics, 
'The Rosicrucians, their Teachings," and other works. 



Privately printed by 

THE PHILOSOPHICAL, PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
AUentown, Pa, 






Two CoDies Received 

MAY 4 1909 

Oopyrignt Entry ~ 
BUSS d- - 

2-3 &£ ?£> 



TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: 

This work is issued by authority of the Supreme Exalted 
Hierareh and Master of the entire world of the Temples of 

Mizraim, Mithra, Osiris, and Horus-Isis. 

* * * 

All rights are reserved, including that of foreign copy- 
rights and translations. 

# e- * 

The present work is copyrighted in the United States, 
England, Germany, France, Canada and in every country 
under the copyright treaty and includes titles and subject 
matter. 



DEDICATION. 

To the sweetest, dearest, loveliest woman, she who is true 
to the one she swears to be true to, and who is to be the Isis 
to Osiris and knows how to love as Psyche loved her Eros, 
this work is dedicated. 

E. Swinburne Clymer. ' 



PREFACE. 

The work before the reader is not an original one, for 
nearly all that it contains has been in book form before. 
However, it has not been our desire to produce an original 
one, for even had it been, it would be impossible, since there 
is very liittle original along these lines. 

In saying this, we naturally refer to the outer symbol- 
ism of the Egyptians, for nearly all of this has been given 
to the world at some time or another. 

Our desire, therefore, is not to simply place symbolism 
before the people, but to explain and make clear, a part of 
the inner meaning of this sublime symbolism, so that those 
who really care for the truth will be able to find it. 

In the year 1859 a work was issued by G. C. Stewart 
under the title of "The Hierophant." This work, while 
far from correct, is possibly the best and most fair of all 
such works ever published, there is but one shortcoming, 
and that is, the fact that he knew nothing of the inner 
meaning of these things or Egyptian teachings for the 
reason that he was not an Initiate. 

The present work has for a base, this book by Stewart 
and has been so edited that it brings it within the exact 
truths known to the Initiates of the Inner Egyptian Mys- 
teries. All such parts as are taken from "The Hierophant" 
are started with quotation marks, and the reader will thus 



10 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

know at onee what is selected material to coroborate the 
statements, and which is the matter which appeared in 
"TheHierophant." 

The notes to the work are absolutely correct and in per- 
fect harmony with the Ancient Egyptian Initiation ; this is 
said by authority of that Sublime Order which still has the 
conservation of those secrets and which will always retain 
them. Naturally, these things are not made plain, but they 
are so plain that all may understand them. 

The small work, as edited by G. C. Stewart, was not 
original, but had its foundation upon the writings of the 
Philosopher Dupuis, Professor Fellows, C. G. Squier, Robert 
Taylor, Nott and Gliddon, Higgins' Anacalypsis, O'Brien's 
Round Towers of Ireland, Mrs. Child's Progress of Re- 
ligious Ideas, Prof. Rhodes, Ovid, Homer, Virgil, and frag- 
ments from older writings, such as the Hebrew Bible, the 
Greek Testament, English Bible, Catholic and Protestant 
creeds, and is therefore not original itself. To this has now 
been added extracts from the Rosicrucian books and from 
the secret manuscripts now held by an order which is the 
legitimate successor to the Fraternity of Osiris, the descend- 
ant of the true Ancient Egyptian Initiation. 

"We have but one desire in placing this work before the 
reader, and that desire is an honorable one : To show that 
all religions, no matter what the name, originally came 
from the same source ; that they are actually still the same, 
—but that they use the symbols of the Ancient Religions 
under different names. This is proven throughout the 
present work. 

Another object in view is to show that, contrary to 
popular belief, the Ancient Priesthood did not teach the 
worship of idols but on the other hand, that theirs was 
absolutely the worship of the one God, and that instead of 
condemning the ancient religions, the moderns should be 
thankful to them for what they have taught us. Nowhere, 
and by no one, has there heen founded such a sublime 
symbolism as by the Ancient Egyptians. ( .... . 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 1 1 

Says Franz Hartmann, M.D., in his ''The Life of 
Jehoshua, the Prophet of Nazareth:" "When the truth 
was driven away from its birthplace in the East by the king 
of all evils, the love of self, it found refuge dn Egypt. Her 
indestructible books hold the records of ancient wisdom, and 
sectarian bigotry has in vain sought to destroy them. With 
her they will rest safely, until selfishness dies and men wake 
up to a consciousness of their freedom. Then will the 
truth return to them, and they may re-enter the Holy Land 
of knowledge. 

' ' In vain the powers of darkness have attempted to silence 
the voice of the truth that speaks through thy stony lips. 
Sectarian vandals have broken thy tablets and plastered up 
thy hieroglyphics ; but thy stones cry out and proclaim the 
gospel of wisdom. Men have carried away thy monuments, 
and they have become messengers of light from the East to 
the West. No more is thy ancient wisdom taught in sub- 
terranean eaves to the initiated ; thy secrets have been pro- 
faned by the profane ; thy sacred pears have been thrown 
before the swine of superstition and to the dogs of blind 
scepticism ; but the swine and the dogs turned away from 
the pearls and devoured only the dirt with which the 
treasures were covered. Men have robbed thy temples of 
precious gold, but the gold which they found turned to 
ashes in the hands of the selfish, because they did not know 
its true value. They went to the fountain of truth, to drink 
of its waters ; but their cups were not purified. They com- 
municated to the water their own impurities, and it became 
a poison to them, causing villainous leprosy, which they 
communicated to others. They penetrated to the ark that 
contained the mystery, but they had no key to unlock it; 
so they carried away the ark and exhibited it in the West, 
but the mystery remained in Egypt,'' 

"To thee, Egypt, the true Redeemer was known; not 
as a man-made deity, or as a figure in history, hut as the 
spirit of truth, constituting all that is immortal in man. 
Thy knowledge was too grand to be grasped by the pigmies 



12 MYSTERIES OF 0&IRIS 

that invaded thy soil, desecrated thy temples, profaned thy 
sanctuaries, travestied the truths which were taught end 
made of a sacred myth, that teaches an eternal truth, as 
historical falsehood. ' ' 

"It was known that the Ancient Egyptians were well 
versed in Astronomy, and recent discoveries made in regard 
to the construction of the Great Pyramid go to show that 
they knew in many respects more about this science than the 
moderns suspect; but to them the sun and planets were 
representing invisible realities. To them the visible cor- 
poreal stars were merely external manifestations of in- 
visible internal powers. Where the present civilization be- 
holds nothing else but dead material bodies, obeying the 
mechanical law of gravitation, whose cause it cannot ex- 
plain, the ancient Egyptians beheld a universe filled with 
life, following the universal law of order and harmony, 
whose cause is the will of the eternal Creator, who produced 
these forms within the substance of His own mind. ' ' 

' ' The visible terrestrial sun was to them a representation 
of the Invisible Spiritual Central Sun of Divine Wisdom, 
named the Sun-God Osiris (Christ), unknowable to ex- 
ternal sensation, but manifesting itself as Hoitis (Jesus) in 
the hearts of mankind; becoming "regenerated" urilhvn the 
souls of the pure by the power of our eternal Mother, I*w, 
the ever immaculate virgin, the goddess of nature. ' ' God ' ' 
to them was not a limited being, but the Eternal Cause of 
all manifestations of power within the realm of matter and 
in the kingdom of spirit, containing withm himself every- 
thing that exists, and yet in consciousness being superior to 
all beings. While all things are living and changing in him, 
he remains always the same; tranquil in his eternal glory 
and undisturbed by any external influence. He does not 
descend to us, but the gifts which we receive from Hiia 
differ according to the position we occupy in regard to Him. 

"Let those who desire to know whether these doctrine* 
are true look within their own minds, for maa w an imag* 
of his creator. There they will find a continually changing 



OB EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 1 3 

tegJom of thoughts. Subjective forms of all kinds throng 
that iniesrior realm, ever changing, and without rest. But 
If they peaetrftte deeper, even the realm of the spirit within, 
they will find a tranquil plaee and a principle whose state 
of consciousness is not affected by the changes going on in 
the mind, and yet these changes are produced by that 
principle, sending its rays into the world of ideas existing 
within the mind. The Divine spirit in man does not descend 
to the sphere of man's intellectual understanding; but man 
may rise up to it in his thoughts. There are periodical 
changes taking place in the mind of man, similar to the 
astronomical changes in the universe. There are ebbs and 
tides of thought, as there are ebbs and tides of the ocean. 
There are times when man involuntarily approaches nearer 
to God, and times when he recedes. The Egyptians knew 
that all the mental processes going on in the mind of man 
are images on a small scale in the Universal Mind, and that 
external phenomena are the shadows of internal realities. 
Being aware of the unity of the all and knowing the nature 
of the spiritual forces in the microcosm of nature and their 
correspondences in the microcosm of man ,they studied the 
position of the stars, to know the time when humanity would 
again approach near to the Divine Sun of Wisdom. They 
were able to tell the changes occurring in the spiritual con- 
dition of mankind by studying the position of the visible 
sun to the zodiac." 

If the student will be only honest and sincere ha will find 
herein ths mystery of the Egyptian religion. He will know 
that the Spirit or the "Soul" of all? Religions are alike, that 
the forms of all are but the houses wherein the spirit dwells 
and — that the spirit of them all has practically flown to the 
beyond and is only retained by the few, and possibly perse- 
cuted ones, of earth. 

He will also learn to know that the real object of the 
Ancient Egyptian Initiation, and of all true religions was 
the union of the individual soul with the Universal Spirit, 



14 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

the attainment of self-control, of divine communion or of 
spiritual perfection. 

R. Swinburne Clymer. 
Allentown, J a., June 27, 1908. 



EN PASSANT. 

The object of the present work is to draw aside the veil 
that ignorance and bigotry has thrown over the past; to 
show how and where the false teachings and mummeries, 
oft-times called religion, had their origin ; to lead the studi- 
ous mind by pleasing and sublime paths to those ancient 
fields the fathers wandered through; there to pluck the 
same kind of fruit on which they feasted, and scent the 
fragrant perfumes that were wafted to them from amid 
the ambrosial bowers where science held her court ; to give 
the hidden sense to those hieroglyphs that eastern sages 
carved upon their temples, obelisks and tombs, and explain 
the meaning of terms and phrases — keys to their mysteries, 
(the real sense of which has given place to false interpreta- 
tions and conclusions,) all of which are based upon those 
ancient symbols, which were so beautiful in their inception, 
but have been perverted by the ignorance of succeeding 
ages. Our object is to help the student to read the history 
of the past, as we find it recorded in the hieroglyphs, en- 
graved upon pyramids, tombs, temples, triumphal arches, 
and statuary; explain it as we have it handed down to us 
in feasts and fasts, in forms and ceremonies, names and 
symbols, and the various fragments of the arts and sciences 
that have reached our time, notwithstanding the mad fury 
of superstitious zealots. And above all, to give as much of 



16 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

the inner mysteries which ive have been taught in the real 
initiation into these mysteries as we are allowed to give to 
the world at large at the present time. 

"A knowledge of these religions (in their outer form) 
has been handed down to us in the form of myths, legends, 
riddles and parables; and these, as interpreted by most of 
the moderns, are merely childish stories, destitute of either 
truth or plausibility, giving evidence of a most feeble in- 
tellect on the part of the authors; but, rescued from the 
misrepresentations of learned ignorance, and understood 
according to their real meaning, they rise up before us in 
beauty and grandeur, and exhibit to us a system of worship 
and belief,- — intricate most certainly, and requiring ages to 
complete it, — yet eminently worthy of the giant minds and 
vigorous intellects that during many generations were en- 
gaged in perfecting it." 

Ancient mythology is a stupendous, or, if you please, a 
childish lie to the uninitiated: but to those who are ad- 
mitted into the secret or initiation, they teach a lesson that 
no one can afford to remain ignorant of, for within the 
sacred walls of the Egyptian Initiation was taught all that 
ever was of religion ; its very foundation was, and is, taught 
there and the Mighty Mystery of Being, which is in the 
mystery of the sex, was taught in all its sublimity. So great 
is this mystery that when the prepared and well trained 
Initiate is brought face to face with it ne stands still as 
though turned into stone for there are no thoughts formed 
within him which can do justice to this mighty mystery. 
Man fails to find language to express his feeling, and he can 
form no thoughts concerning them ; the mystery can there- 
fore be but a state of feeling, since he cannot express its 
sublimity. 

"The earliest Bible writers were Egyptian in feeling and 
religion, and until they were snugly settled on lands that 
other hands had cultivated, the tribes were ever anxious to 
return; and even in their oum Uuyid the religion of the 
Egyptimis prevailed over the worship of Jehovah. The 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 1 7 

forms, ceremonies and symbols of the Egyptians were trans- 
ferred to Jerusalem, and adopted in gross, in the temple 
worship." 

To understand a large proportion of the Bible we must 
become Egyptianized, or baptized into the spirit of their 
institutions. Their (outer) religion was purely astro- 
nomical and agricultural; and their creed, confession of 
faith, and Bible, were written on the skies, and still remain 
there for our inspection. The Baal worship of the nations 
in and around Judea was the same system, modified to suit 
the peculiar condition of the people. These writings in the 
ekies, the oldest remaining on record, were transferred, in 
allegory or parables, to the parchment rolls that in early 
times constituted the Jewish Bible. They are the lexicons 
to resort to, if we desire to interpret the dead language of 
ancient science in which the Bible was written. These are 
the mystic keys that alone will unlock the secret chambers 
of imagery that abound in that book. These constitute a 
vast library, containing the text books of the ancient 
writers, from which they gathered the materials of their 
strange stories. Looking up into the blue vault of heaven, 
the uncultured eye sees naught but a confused and pro- 
miscuous sprinkling of the starry hosts, without system or 
harmony; but, viewed as ancient science arranged them, in 
their various divisions or constellations, they are seen to 
wheel into line, and pursue their daily and yearly course 
with the utmost order and regularity. This arrangement 
of the stars into constellations, forms the basis of all the 
forms of all religions, as it does also of the Masonic cere- 
monies and those of many other mystical and secret so- 
cieties that have during the past ages excited the curiosity 
and wonder of the world. The student must understand 
that we say the "forms" and not the inner mystery of the 
ancient and sacred teachings for these were not in forms or 
ritual, but in living the part. Even a superficial knowledge 
of the meaning of this arrangement of the starry hosts 
opens up to the scientific and theological student a hitherto 



18 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

almost untrodden field for investigation — a field rich with 
the hidden treasures of the past, that interested speculators 
in human credulity and ignorance have buried there, and 
who are constantly on the watch to prevent any search in 
that quarter. 

"Historians are amazed at the conformity in many re- 
spects, between the practices of the Hebrews and those of 
nations given over to the grossest idolatry. Most of the 
learned — not being Initiates — in order to account for such 
a similitude of usages, say that false religions only copied 
and mimicked the true. Other learned men, however, and 
among the rest, Sir John Marsham, in his Rule of Times, 
being very sensible how much unknown to, and separated 
from other nations the Hebrews were; how much disliked 
by those that knew them, and of course how little fit they 
were to serve them as models; and finding, moreover, from 
a multitude of proofs, that the sacrifices, the ceremonials, 
and the very objects themselves of idolatry, were prior 
themselves to Moses and the Scriptures, they have main- 
tained that the laws and the ceremonies of the Hebrews 
were an imitation of the customs of Egypt and the neigh- 
boring nations, but adapted to the worship of the one God." 

Even this fails far short of the truth and we will say 
with the author of the Occult Science in India, "Between 
the Trinitarian systems of Christianity and those of the 
Hindus, of the Cabalists (Hebrew Initiates), and. of the 
Neo-Platonists, the numerous points of similarity are 
obvious at a glance, and we can readily see the source from. 
which the founders of that religion have derived their 
revelation. 

"We say founders, though that is not the proper name to 
apply to the authors of the four gospels, whose idea it was 
to create a tradition of their own, for it is now well settled 
that Christianity, which is as old as the temple of Egypt 
and the pagodas of India, is a symbolic synthesis of all tlje 
beliefs of antiquity." 

The greater mysteries of the Egyptian taught the doc- 



19 OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 

trine of the one Supreme God, and that polytheism was an 
error; admitting that the sun, moon, and stars, were minor 
divinities or forces under the superintendence of the one 
Supreme God. It was from the Egyptianized or Initiated. 
Moses that the Hebrews received their first idea of the one 
God for Moses tried to teach all his people this mystery — 
and failed. This idea, the only one which the Hebrews 
have been able, to claim > even was not original with them, 
but was already as old as man 

"According to Nott and Gliddon (types of manhood) the 
Egyptian- kingdom was in its glory 5,600 years ago. This 
fact is, (practically) proved by their monuments, which are 
known to be of the earliest antiquity, and are covered with 
figures, among which those of the crab and the wild goat,, of 
the balance and the scorpion, of the ram and the bull, of the 
lion, the virgin, and the other signs of the zodiac are fre- 
quently found. The religions of the race, according to most 
authors, had their origin in Egypt, along the banks of .the 
Nile. This conclusion is drawn from the fact that they 
seem to have been in possession of the most perfect system 
of symbols, and the various notions that have obtained a 
lodgement among the sects in regard to God, Heaven, Hell, 
etc." 

There is a slight mistake in this. It is true that the 
symbolism peculiar to Egypt had their origin in Egypt a.nd 
along the banks of the Nile, but the Inner Mysteries or 
True Religion of the- Egyptians did not have- their origin 
there, for they were old before Egypt was populated by 
mankind. 

Genesis 1 :14 : And God said, "Let there be 'lights in the 
firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; 
and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and 
for years. ' ' 

"Field of glories! spacious field, 
And worthy of the Master: He whose hand 
Wiith hieroglyphics, older than the Nile, 
Inscribed the mystic tablet ; hung on high, • 



2* MYSTERIES OP QSIRIS 

To public gaze, and said, Adore, man ! 
Hie finger of thy God." 

The ancient man did not vainly exhaust his intellect to 
(discover God. Untrammelled by creeds, he did not seek 
God, he simply found him — kn-ew Him in the love which 
engenders life; the wisdom that sustains it; the power that 
upholds it — knew Him in the sacred flame, which is heat; 
the splendor of light, which is revelation. He discovered 
the reflection of his dwelling-place in the majesty of the 
blazing sun, and perceived his own destiny — God's provi- 
dence and nature's profoundest harmonies — in the constel- 
lated paths of the starry heavens and the movements of the 
fiery legions of space. 

Casting about for the cause of existence, the supports on 
which it rested and the aims for which he lived, the ancient 
man dedicated all his earliest powers of mind to religion. 
Even his earliest triumphs in the arts of civilization were 
but used as means to this one end. His superb temples of 
worship, his solemn preparations for another life, and his 
colossal monuments record his religious beliefs, remains 
which are imperishable evidences of his deep and undivided 
interest in the problems of religion ; whilst of his social and 
commercial pursuits, only the most fragmentary and un- 
important vestiges can be found. India, Elgypt, Arabia, the 
recesses of the mighty Himalayas and the giant Koh Kas, 
the lovely vales and smiling plains of Asia — vales blooming 
like glimpses of the fabled Eden, the savage wilds, ■deserted 
now, desolate and ruined — all bear witness to the unquench- 
able devotion .of the early man to his religious belief ; all 
are thickly strewn over with colossal remains of that stu- 
pendous system in which that belief found expression. The 
burning lands of the Orient are one vast Bible overwrittea 
with distinct asservations that to the early roan God wm 
not the Unknowable, and religious faith was no mystery. 
Whence came this faith if not from man's intuitive knowl- 
edge and the obvious facta of creation? Sun, moon, stars, 
the constellated glories of the heavens, their eternal order 



OB EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 2% 

and their majestic march through infinity — these were the 
Scriptures which the natural instincts of an unspoiled 
nature recognized God's own handwriting, and interpreted 
it without failure or effort. 

Creedism and artificial civilization, with their long train 
of crime and disease, want and woe — an overstrained de- 
votion to the idols of ecclesiasticism and physical (material) 
science, have alienated the soul of man from pure, natural, 
spiritual religion, interrupted the precious communion 
which pure, spiritual natures alone can enjoy with angelio 
spheres of existence, and driven off the soul into the baneful 
mysticism of idolatrous creeds or blank materialism. 

Thence came symbolism and ritualism, creeds and 
churches. 

The first settlers upon the Egyptian soil attempted to 
cultivate the earth according to the order of the year and in 
the manner of other countries, but no sooner were they 
ready to cut down their harvest in the driest season of the 
year, and without the least appearance of rain, than the 
river swelled to their great amazement — it flowed on a 
sudden over its banks, and took from them the provision 
which they thought themselves already sure of. The waters 
continued to rise, sweeping away their cattle and even 
some of the inhabitants themselves. 

"The inundation lasted ten or eleven weeks, and accord- 
ing to tradition caused them to quit lower and retire to 
upper Egypt. They there founded the city of Thebes, or- 
iginally called Ammon-No (Ammon's abode). But many 
finding it inconvenient to remove from lower Egypt, which, 
after the retiring of the waters, was throughout the remain- 
ing part of the year like a beautiful garden and a delightful 
place to dwell in, endeavored to fortify themselves against 
the return of the waters. But they wanted the means of 
knowing exactly the time when it would be necessary for 
tfhem to prepare for the inundation. The flowing of the 
river beyond its banks happened some days sooner or later, 
when the sun was under the stars of the Lion, Near the 



22 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

stars of cancer, though pretty far south from the hand of 
the zodiac, they saw. in the morning one of the most bril- 
liant, if not the largest, star of the whole heaven, ascending 
the horizon. The Egyptians pitched upon the rising of this 
magnificent star as the infallible sign of the sun's passing 
under the stars of Leo, and the beginning of the inundation. 
That star became the public mark on which every one was 
to keep a watchful eye, not to miss the instant of retiring 
to the higher ground. As it was seen but a little time above 
the horizon ere the sun made it disappear, it seemed to show 
itself to the Egyptians merely to warn them of the overflow- 
ing which soon followed. They gave this star two names. 
It warned them, of danger, wherefore they called it Thaaut 
or Tayaut, the dog; they called it also the barker, the 
monitor, in Egyptian Anubis; in Phoenician Hannobeach, 
the people called it the Nile Star, or barely the Nile." 

Such was the origin of the Egyptian symbolism, but 
where is there a student who will believe that. man, before 
that time, who already understood the laws of civilization 
and society, to have been without any religion ? And yet, 
such seems to be. the idea of practically all those who have 
treated upon this vast subject, and this has been, and still is, 
the great cause of confusion concerning religion, both 
modern and ancient. 

"Jesus taught in parables, according to the custom of all 
the learned teachers of the olden times. The varied figura- 
tive expressions that apply, or are applied to 'the kingdom 
of heaven' in the teachings of theologians had their origin 
in the astronomical notions, and in the agricultural and 
social condition of the most ancient nations. The Egyp- 
tians opened their year in accordance with the peculiarity 
of their country; but most nations, including the Hebrews, 
commenced their year at the vernal equinox; and this, with 
the autumnal equinox, formed the two foundations on 
which rested the royal arch, or the months constituting the 
warm season, which to the ancients was the kingdom of 
heaven, the home of the gods, and was in reality nothing 



Oft EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 23 

but the astronomical and agricultural heaven. 

"In all religious (forms) systems, in order to fulfill ail 
righteousness, the founders must needs organize them in 
aeeordance with the method adopted in the earlier ages. 
Thus, as there were twelve domiciles of the sun, there must 
be twelve teachers or leaders, and when one was lost another 
must be chosen to supply his place. When Levi was selected 
for the priesthood another tribe was divided to maintain 
the perfect number; and when Judas fell, another was 
chosen to fill his place. All the (outer or ritualistic) wor- 
ship of the ancients, when performed systematically, con- 
sisted in imitating the movements of the heavenly bodies 
and the action of the elements, and in celebrating the labors 
of the sun, together with the sacrifices to appease a sup- 
posed angry God. Jesus was well acquainted with these 
customs of the ancients and conformed to them externally, 
when he commenced his career; for we find him acknowl- 
edging them in his baptism and forty days' fast, in which 
he imitated the passage of the sun through the constellation 
Aquarius, where John, Joannes or Janus, the baptizer, had 
his domicile and baptized the earth with his yearly rains. 
Having been baptized in Jordan he fasted forty days in the 
wilderness, in imitation of the passage of the sun from the 
constellation Aquarius, through the fishes, to the mutton or 
Lamb of March. During the forty days when the sun is 
among the fishes, the faithful Catholics, Episcopalians and 
Mahomedans abstain from meat and live upon the fishes 
during the season of Lent, as did the Jews and the Ancients, 
and as did also Jesus to fulfill all righteousness, until the 
time that he abolished the first, or Jewish, to establish the 
second or Christian dispensation." 

The fishes of the sea, and the birds of heaven, and all 
creeping things that creep upon the earth.... are rightly 
understood, spiritually, as all the affections and emotions 
of the soul, which we have like those animals. (St. Augus- 
tine, De Gen c Manich, Lib. 1, ch. 20.) 

Here we have the inner and the outer and the Mystery of 



24 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

Hermes in which he says, "As above so below." The sym- 
bolical form was the outer and the living; remember this, 
the living was the inner. The abolition of the form, or the 
observing of Lent, was the new dispensation or the time for 
the command of God, "I have given you the herbs of the 
field, etc., and to you they shall be as meat." In other 
words, when man should live a natural life and should 
neither sacrifice anything that contained blood nor should 
he use such things as food. 

The labors of the Initiate Jesus, or the Nazarene, con- 
sisted mainly in attempting to abolish a system of religion 
founded upon the forms or ceremonies, or ritualism, and of 
introducing a religion purely spiritual, a worship in which 
the religious life of man should be purity, benevolence and 
love. In this, his life and work was an exact counterpart of 
that of Moses and the results were the same, for : 

"It is self-evident from the New Testament history that 
although Jesus disregarded the Jewish Sabbath, and also 
the Pagan, which was observed a day later and which is 
our Sunday, and although he taught his disciples not to 
pray in public, but in their closet with the door shut, and 
entirely ignored all outward observances as obligator} 1 - on 
man, yet the church, soon after his death, returned to the 
old forms of religion, and has perpetuated them to this day, 
retaining the same days in their ceremonies that the old 
Ancients and Jews did in theirs. Thus the birthday of 
Jesus is identical with the birthday of the year; Epiphany 
is observed on the same day that they observed it; water 
baptism is borrowed from them; Lent is an ancient fast, 
which they held the same space of time; the/ Passover is still 
celebrated, and the Assumption and Nativity of the Virgin 
occur on the precise day that they did in the old Egyptian 
ritual. 

Nor is this all, but in all these things nothing but the 
form is left, the spirit has died and is only reserved in the 
few fraternities as of old. 



THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES. 

All writers on the subject of the Ancient Mysteries agree, 
that "there never was in any age of the world, from the 
most early accounts of time to this present hour, any eivil- 
policed nation or people who had a religion, of which the 
chief foundation and support was not the doctrine of a 
future state of rewards) and punishment All the re- 
ligions of the world, whether true or false, turn upon this 
grand pivot, that there is an invisible Judge, who punishes 
and rewards, after this life, the actions of men, both of 
thought and deed. From thence it is supposed the principle 
use of religion is derived." 

From this very misconception, made by all the writers and 
so-called authorities on this subject, (except the very few 
of those who were Initiates of the Mysteries,) have come the 
misunderstandings of the Ancient Mysteries and Religions. 

There is one great reason for this, a fact not recognized, 
or else not known to these writers, which is, that these 
mysteries were not original with ancient Egypt, as they all 
seem to believe, but were brought to Egypt from ancient 
Altantis possibly 200,000 years before there was any re- 
ligion whatever in Egypt. This is the great mystery of the 
great confusion now reigning concerning religion, both 
ancient and modern. 

The foundation of true religion is not as supposed to pQ 



26 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

by these authorities and quoted as an opening statement, 
but is: "The existence of Grod (Gods) ; the immortality of 
the soul and the universal brotherhood of all mankind." 
Bearing this in mind we will consider the Ancient Mysteries 
in their true light as given to us from the records them- 
selves of the Ancient Egyptian Initiation when in all its 
glory and beauty and these explanations are in complete 
and truthful harmony with that Initiation and its teach- 
ings.* 

In the clear and thorough analysis of the Egyptian 
mysteries, we find that the corner-stone of belief rests on the 
assumption that the first great cause is a Spirit. That the 
first and only element of being was soul — that it existed 
eternally, and filled infinity. By its power of will it sep- 
arated itself into emanations and elements, and by its own 
inherent capacity for creation, the unresting element of 
force was evolved; then came matter, and by the action of 
force on matter, the unspeakable wisdom of the uncreated 
soul, moving on the ocean of chaos, created form and 
evolved order. The fiery particles of matter ascended to 
form luminous bodies, the heavier descended and aggre- 
gated into earths, seas, plants, animals, and the bodies of 
men. 

From the eternal soul proceeded successive emanations of 
spiritual beings, more or less elevated according to their 
status or ascent or decent in the grand scale of the spiritual 
kingdom. 

Herodotus affirms that the Egyptians were the first 
people who distinctly taught the immortality of the human 
soul, but this is not true, the same doctrine had been taught 
in India when the Egyptian Dynasty was yet in its infancy 
and ages before India had this doctrine it was taught in 



* There are but two men in America who have received 
this Initiation in its entirety. These are the only men who 
can speak with authority concerning the Mysteries and 
their true meaning. 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 37 

Atlantis. The foundation of the Egyptian Mysteries were 
laid in the belief that the soul had fallen from an original 
state of purity and innocence, as already taught, that it had' 
gravitated from a spiritual essence to a material body, and 
that the chief end, aim and scope of earthly being, was to 
conduct the soul through successive stages of purification, 
back into original alliance with Deity. 

This is the central doctrine of Plato, Pythagoras, Jam- 
blichus, Plutarch, and of all the most renowned sages, phil- 
osophers, and historians who flourished from the beginning 
of historical times, to those of the early Christian fathers. 
The Cabalists, Gnostics, Therapeuts, Essenes, and the 
Mystics of the mediaeval ages, and many of the Initiates of 
the present century cherish similar opinions concerning the 
origin of the soul, and its probationary experiences. 

To become an Initiate was really the criterion of the 
worse and the better man. The man of the crowd, if he 
happened to be initiated, was satisfied, and sought not for 
more knowledge than that there was : 

"Aerial spirits, by great Jove designed, 
To be on earth the guardians of mankind ; 
Invisible to mortal eyes they go, 
And mark our actions, good or bad, below. 
The immortal spies with watchful care preside, 
And thrice ten thousand, round their charges glide. 
They can reward with glory or with gold ; 
A power they by divine permission hold. ' ' 

1— Hesiod. 

This knowledge of spirit-existence, a life beyond the 
grave, was found sufficient to ensure the acquiescence of the 
Initiate to the National Cultus. The popular morality ma>y 
not have come up to the ideal standard aspired to by Phil- 
osophers ; yet the Initiate of antiquity was thus much better 
informed than the modern materialists, as he knew those 
very facts which they ignore. 

Thus the Lesser Mysteries were without doubt instituted 
for the purpose of inculcating the truth of spirit-existence ; 
but the greater mysteries had a far deeper merit and pur- 



28 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

pose, namely., that of imparting a knowledge of the divine, 
and for those who were desirous of receiving a higher in- 
itiation there was extant a most stupendous hierarchic 
system. 

The Atlantean race dwelt on a large island, smaller 
islands forming means of communication towards Europe 
and Africa on one side, and America on the other. It was 
about 400,000 years ago that Atlantis was at its height. 
Texas and the Gulf of Mexico were included in it, the 
southern and eastern states up to and including Labrador, 
the Atlantic Ocean,* Scotland, Ireland and part of Eng- 
land, while it took in also Brazil and the whole of the At- 
lantic Ocean to the African Gold Coast. In this connection 
it is interesting to note that a human skeleton was found 
burrieel underneath four ancient forests at New Orleans, 
supposed to date back at least 57,000 years (S. D. 796). 

Atlantis, then, reached from the Andes to Hindustan, if 
not to China, and "in its markets must have met maize of 
the Mississippi Valley, the copper of Lake Superior, the 
gold and silver of Peru and Mexico, the spices of India, the 
tin of "Wales and Cornwall, the bronze of Iberia, the amber 
of the Baltic, the wheat and barley of Greece, Italy and 
Switzerland. Their civilization was old when Egypt was 
but a child, and they passed away thousands of years before 
Babylon, Rome or London were dreamed of. But these lost 
people lucre our ancestors, their blood floivs in our veins. 
The words we use every day were heard in their primitive 
form in their cities, courts and temples. Every line of race 
and thought, of blood and belief leads back to them."* 

Atlantis had more mountains than valleys, their summits 
being lost in the clouds. It belongs to the Cenolithic or 



•It must be borne in mind that the Atlantic Ocean was 
then no more than an immense river, but as Atlantis sank, 
America, which was then but an island, issued from the 
water, while Atlantis sank beneath the water and the river 
became the ocean. 

*J3om'dly "Atlantis/' 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 29 

Tertiary period, including- the Eocene, Miocene and Plio- 
cene ages, and the strata depth is 5,000 feet. There were 
four principal rivers* which watered this great continent, 
flowing from a central point towards four points of the 
compass. The climate was that of the Azores, mild and 
pleasant. As to the people, their physical strength was ex- 
traordinary, — witness their cyclopean buildings, — the earth 
shaking under their feet. They were giants of physical 
beauty and strength towards the middle of their fourth sub- 
race. The inhabitants were of two distinct races, physically 
and morally, both versed in 'primeval wisdom and the 
secrets of nature, and antagonistic in their struggles. Th \y 
differed in color, one race being of a dark reddish brown, 
like the Central Americans and Egyptians, and the other 
white, like the Greeks, Goths, Celts and Scandinavians. 
They fought for supremacy; the light-colored race seems to 
have been the larger, physically, hence the legends of the 
Titans and Giants 

The Atlanteans had a period of the highest civilization. 
Greek, Roman and even Egyptian are as nothing compared 
to the civilization that began with the third race after the 
separation. 

They attained to a high position as agriculturists. They 
domesticated the horse, possessed sheep,* manufactured 
woolen goods, had goats, clogs, swine. They raised cotton 
and made cotton goods, and probably cultivated maize, 
wheat, oats, barley, rye, tobacco, hemp, flax, etc. The At- 
lanteans built aqueducts and canals for irrigation; they 
were architects, sculptors, engravers. They possessed an 



*From this comes the legend of the Garden of Eden with 
its four rivers. 

*Nowhere in either profane or sacred history is to be 
found anything concerning the origin of the horse and 
sheep in Egypt. This in itself is one of the strongest proofs 
that they must h-ave been, brought there from somewhere 
else. Atlantis was this "somewhere, else," as many manu- 
scripts held in secret archives prove. 



30 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

alphabet; they worked! in copper, bronze, silver, gold and 
iron. They knew the use of the magnet, electricity and 
gun powder. The so-called Phoenican coins found in the 
'Azores were of Atlantean origin. 

They possessed the highest knowledge of the zodiac. 
Their material civilization was as high as ours, lacking only 
the printing press and those inventions in which steam is 
used. Their standing army is given as upwards of 1,000,000 
men, its navy as of 1,200 ships and 240,000 sailors. 

They had airships, some of them carrying from 50 to 100 
men. The force that guided these air boatsi was similar to 
the power of "vril," as described by Bulwer Lyton in the 
"Coming Race." 

They were vegetarians and it is for this reason that their 
civilization had reached the height that it did. Gradually 
as they led a more impure life their state of civilization fell 
into decay. 

The Atlanteans gradually spread out in colonies, east and 
west. This was the work of centuries ; relations existed be- 
tween the mother country and the outlying settlements ; new 
races and dialects were formed by the crossings between the 
mother country and her colonies. 

The first Atlantean races were born on the Lemurian con- 
tinent and separated from their earliest tribes, intto the 
righteous and the unrighteous; into those who worship the 
One Unseen Spirit of Nature (the One God), the ray which 
man feels within himself, or Pantheists; and those who 
offered fanatical worship to the spirits of the earth, the dark, 
cosmic, anthropomorphic powers with whom they made al- 
liance.* So that in religion they had reached the great 
thoughts which underlie our modern creeds : they had a con- 
ception of one, universal omnipotent first cause, and we 
find this in their colonies, in Peru, and in early Egypt. The 



*It is thus proven that both the Inner Mysteries and) the 
symbolic religious worship of the Egyptians were both 
brought from Atlantis. Neither had its origin in Egypt. 



OB EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 3 1 

sun was regarded as the mighty emblem and instrumen- 
tality of this one God.t They believed the soul of man was 
immortal and that he would live again in his material 
body.* The Atlanteans, towards the end of their civiliza- 
tion, became terrible sorcerers and this brought about their 
fall. The wisdom once imparted by the third race to the 
adepts of the early fourth race has remained in all its purity 
in a certain brotherhood living at this present day on an 
island in Central Asia. 

Of the seven sub-races of the Atlanteans, the first is said 
to have colonized Greenland and "West Scandinavia; the 
second, California, Rio Janerio, Africa, India, and mixing 
with the indigenous Lemurian population, formed the Dra- 
vidian race, Patagonia, and produced the Brown Indians of 
South America.* 

The third, North and South America, Peru and Mexico. 
The Peruvian civilization reached its height ahout 14,000 
years ago under the Inca sovereigns. The average Red In- 
dian of America is the best representation of the Atlantean 
Toltec sub-race. Egypt was also settled from the Toltecs, 
the third sub-race of the Atlanteans. A great transfer from 
Atlantis took place about 200,000 years ago, of a great lodge 



tThe very belief of the Jews. It must be borne in mind 
that the Jews, while in captivity in Egypt, that is. the 
learned of the Jews, taught a doctrine of the one God. Here 
we meet again the key to all religion as in all sacred 
writings. The one unseen spirit of nature was the one God 
of the^Atlantean priesthood. This one God was really the 
God of which the sun was the emblem only to the Egyptian 
priesthood and it is at the same time the one God o£ the 
Jews. The inner teachings of the Atlanteans, Egyptian and 
Jewish priesthood was nothing else than the "One God." 

JThe Doctrine of Reincarnation. 

*It is for this very reason that the symbolism and the 
gods of every nation in the world, once we understand them 
right, are identically the same. They may have different 
names but they are, in their meaning, exactly alike. They 
came from one only parent, the Atlantean race. 



32 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

of Initiates.* This occult lodge founded the first Divine 
Dynasty of Egypt. The two pyramids of Gizeh v ff;jre built, 
partly for halls of initiation, partly to protect certain 
mysteries during the submersion which the Initiates knew 
would come. Egypt was under water, then re-emerged and 
we have the second Divine Dynasty. Again, some 80,000 
years ago, it was under water again ; then the third Divine 
Dynasty ruled, that mentioned by Manetho ; and the Great 
Temple of Karnak and many more ancient buildings were 
since erected. 

Morocco and Algiers were settled by the fourth sub-race. 

From the fifth, the Semites, came our Aryan race, from 
Central Asia, where the Aryan kingdom was established. 

From the sixth came the Persians, Etruscans, Phoenicians 
and Carthagenians. 



*This great lodge of Initiates founded the Egyptian 
Priesthood, with all its initiation of the inner mysteries. 
The outer mysteries, those for the people, were simply the 
result of the masses not being satisfied with the worship of 
the One God. 



THE PYRAMID. 

"In that day there shall be an altar to the Lord in the 
midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border there- 
of to the Lord ; and it shall be for a sign and for a witness 
unto the Lord of Hosts in the land of Egypt." Isa. 19: 
19. 20. 

•''The interior of the Pyramid was a temple designed to 
teach and illustrate these sciences, and as the soul of man 
was regarded as an emanation direct from Deity, so its 
progress through matter — its fall from spiritual purity to 
an alliance with gross matter — its transmigration through 
various forms for the purpose of probation and purifica- 
tion, its ultimate birth into manhood and — provided the 
animal prevailed in its nature — its descent again into ani- 
mal forms, and provided the spiritual prevailed, its new 
birth and final transformation into a pure spiritual ex- 
istence; these were the stages of the sublime drama which 
the temples were built to display, and chief est of all was the 
great Temple of Cheops, which by profound and correct 
astronomical calculations, the founders designed should be 
the physical centre of the world, so they also metaphysically 
designed it to be the great centre of all those sublime teach- 
ings which, in the form of mysteries too profound for the 
vulgar mind, they, the masses, organized into Masonry and 
lost the secret. 

The base of this Temple is the perfect square, which 



34 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

symbolizes in its four corners the sacred number 1, the 
union of the masculine and feminine principles. Its corners 
are the perfect triangle, the symbol so esteemed throughout 
the East, and significant of the mystic number 3. The de- 
scent of the sun upon its apex at the two solemn epochs of 
the year, which signify life eternal, and death through the 
ever constant adverse principle of evil, complete the series 
of allegorical ideas which this building was designed to 
celebrate. 

"The magnificent unison that strikes from the lowest to 
the highest depths, including all the tones of creation, 
sounds in vain in the harmony of choiring worlds upon the 
ears that are dulled to every tone save the clink of money, 
the emblem of all materialism; but amidst this eclipse of 
the true faith — this total darkness on the subject of the 
scientific religion, and the religion of science, the grand old 
Pyramid of Cheops stands grimly mute — eloquently speech- 
less, waiting for the hour when the builders of the' /new 
Temple of the divine humanity, missing the keystone of the 
arch, which is neither oblong nor square, shall search amid 
the rubbish of antiquity, and finding the stone that the 
builders rejected, place it as the keystone in the arch by 
which the heavens overshadow the earth, and constitute the 
universe the Divine Temple of the Master Builder, God. 

"Notwithstanding the picture of supposed external deg- 
radation given us, the spirit of ancient Egypt, filtered 
through the epics of classic Greece and the memories of 
stately Rome, still lives, still animates the earnest student 
and the patient scholar to fresh research in the letter of .the 
dead Orient, and fresh discoveries in the hidden meaning of 
its immortal soul. The day will soon come when the 
mysteries of the ancients will be the science of the moderns, 
and in that morning light of revelation the Great Pyramid 
of Cheops will be known for what it really is, the alphabet 
which spells out the significance of the divine drama of ex- 
istence, 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 35 

Gazing, rapt, awed, upon that mighty pile, 

The mind is filled with wonder, and we ask, 
Is it a tomb or teacher ? Whence its style ? 

What men, what age conceived, achieved the task? 
Wonder of wonders in this land of Nile, 

Of what great thought is it the type and mask ! 
Its chambers, passages, mysterious coffer, 
Its layers, angles, measurements and stone, 
All each, to unsealed eyes of men now offer 

Solutions (for four thousand years unknown) 
Of truths which stand against the doubting scoffer, 

The clearer from their test, as fully shown. 
How, in its presence, modern pride is bowed ! 

Its hoary wisdom whispering from the dead, 
Sublime, mysterious, awful, with the shroud 

Of forty centuries wrapped around its head ! 
We catch its muffled tones, now low, now loud, 

And hear with wonder nigh akin to dread. 

— Joseph A. Seiss, in A Miracle of Stone. 

A manuscript translated by Le Plongeon, which appears 
to have been written about 3,500 years ago, among the 
Mayas of Yucatan, and in which is described the catas- 
trophe which submerged the last of Atlantis, which he says 
occurred 8,060 years before the writing of the book, and 
that 64,000,000 of inhabitants perished. 

Our fifth root-race is about 1,000,000"* years old ; there is 
allowed for each sub-race about 210,000 years, and for a 
family race, 30,000 years, one overlapping the other, how- 
ever, — not each cut off clean and distinct at the allotted 
time. With the sinking of Atlantis, the fifth race came into 
prominence, for as Atlantis fell, other parts of tl}e globe 
arose and became inhabitable. Reference has already been 
made to the large colonies on outlying islands founded bv 
the Atlanteans, and to the fact that Asia is considered as 
the birthplace of the fifth race. The Aryan race was born 



*This is according to Madam Blavatsky in her "Secret 
Doctrine" and also to Donnelly's "Atlantis." 

For the full explanation of these races and sub-races the 
reader is referred to said works 



3$ MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

and developed in the far North, but after the sinking of 
Atlantis, its tribes emigrated farther south into Asia. 

The sub-races of the fifth root race, five of which have 
developed, are: 

1. Indian and Egyptian. 

2. Chaldean, Babylonian and Assyrian. 

3. Persian or Iranian. 

4. Celtic. 

5. The Teutonic, of which we form a part.* 

6. Will be the coming race, or the reincarnates of the 
Egyptian people. With this will come the fall of all 
Nations as such and the rise of the Egyptian reincarnates 
as a perfect Nation — a prophecy. 

As the root races have their inception, their zenith and 
their gradual death, so do the sub-races pass through the 
same stages, and we find that India and Egypt, the first 
sub-races, had their days as great and governing nations, 
and have faded from political and social importance; we 
find that Chaldea, Babylon and Assyria had their civiliza- 
tions, w T hich belong to the historical past ; Persia, the third 
sub-race, has ceased to exert its power. Of the fourth, the 
Cents, little or no records are left; but we read that the 
Greeks and Romans are the last family shoots. We then 
come to the rise of the Teutonic race, the fifth, and here in 
America, is beginning the sixth sub-race. The forerunner 
of the sixth great root race, before whose time, however, 
cataclysms will occur similar to these which destroyed At- 
lantis, but that only part of the continent will sink beneath 
the surface and in the west, in the Pacific, will rise a land, 
joined to part of what is now America and connected by 
land to ancient Egypt, which will be the home of the last 
great race of men. 

It has been necessary to give this much of the historical 



*It is thus not hard to understand why the symbolism of 
all nations, no matter what the color or tongue, is, when 
properly understood, the same with all. 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 37 

knowledge concerning ancient Atlantis in order that all may 
understand, not only why such great mistakes have been 
made by all writers of the ancient religions, but also that 
the student may understand why the symbolism of all 
Nations is alike when properly read. 

In the Egyptian Mysteries, there were both the inner and, 
the outer explanation of the mysteries. In other words, 
there was both an open and a secret worship. It has been 
stated that the priests of the mysteries brought this about. 
This is not true, but the people themselves could not under- 
stand the sacred nature of these mysteries, — they were too 
simple and therefore the people demanded something jmore 
than the worship of the One God without a symbol and in 
the process of time they took unto themselves many gods. 

Although all nations were given the initiation, that is, all 
priests of all nations were given the inner meaning of the 
mysteries, and although they all practiced the same teach- 
ings, the names of the gods of these nations were not alike. 
Thus it is stated: "One nation adopted the gods of an- 
other, they did not always take in at the same time the 
secret worship, or mysteries of that god, so in Rome the 
public and open worship of Bacchus was in use long before 
his mysteries were admitted.* But on the other hand, again, 
the worship of the strange god sometimes introduced only 



*This is very true, but the one who makes the statement 
has lost the greater truth. It is true that Bacchus was wor- 
shipped long before the inner mystery was the exclusive 
secret of the priesthood, but a great fact must be borne in 
mind. When Bacchus — as a symbol — was first worshipped, 
it was worshipped by all the people of that faith, in its 
purity and there was no reason for the priests to have the 
secret worship. All people who worshipped Bacchus under- 
stood the inner or mystery of Bacchus and worshipped him 
in purity the same as the early Christians worshipped the 
mystery of Christ in purity. In time, this mystery lost its 
meaning to the common people and just as fast as the com- 
mon people lost the mystery, it became secret with the 
priests until in process of time the mystery was lost al f to- 



38 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

for the sake of his mysteries, as, in the same city, that of 
Isis and Osiris. The first mysteries, after those of Atlantis, 
and of which there is any account, are those of Isis and 
Osiris of Egypt, from whence they were transplanted to 
Greece. Zoroaster brought them into Persia, Cadmus and 
Inachus into Greece generally, Orpheus into Trace, Melapns 
into Argis, Trophonius into Boeotia, Minos into Crete. 
Cinyras into Cyprus, and Ereehtheus into Athens. And as 
in Egypt they were to Isis and Osiris, so in Asia they were 
to Mithras, in Samothrace to the mother of the Gods, in 
Boeotia to Bacchus, in Cyprus to Venus, in Crete to Jupiter, 
in Athens to Ceres and Proserpine, in Amphissa to Castor 
and Pollux, in Lemnos to Vulcan, and so to others in other 
places, the number of which is unknown and it is upon 
these same mysteries with the mystery lost that the Church 
of this present day is founded. 

The end, as well as the nature, of all these mysteries was 
the same — to teach the doctrine of immortality or a life 
beyond the present state, and further, to teach man that he 
was the temple of the one God, or, as we would now say, 
that man, through the training or initiation in the mys- 
teries, would become a very Christ. Both Origen and Cel- 
sus agree upon this point, only that they worded their de- 
fense in different words. It must be remembered that in 
neither of the mysteries was eternal hell or punishment 
taught, no more than Christ taught it. The Law of Karma, 
or as Christ worded it: "Ye shall reap as you have sown" 
was the grand doctrine. 

'The most celebrated or most noted of the mysteries (were 
those of the Orphic, the Bacchic, the Eleusinian, the Samo- 



gether to the common people and became a secret with the 
priesthood. The people followed or Avorshipped Bacchus 
exactly as the Christians now worship Jesus and the In- 
itiates the Christ. It was thus that the symbol worshrn re- 
mained for the people and the mysteries of Bacchus for the 
priesthood or the Initiates. It was not the fault of the 
priests but of the people. 



OE EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 39 

tracian, the Cabiric, and the Mithraic, until in the time of 
Christ, the Essenians were the only ones which taught the 
mysteries in their purity. 

The Druids of Britain had, as well as the Brahmans of 
India, a number of these religious rites, and celebrated the 
same rites of Bacchus, and there were sects in Britain which 
celebrated the same rites as were celebrated in Samothrace. 

Of all the mysteries, the Eleusianian, celebrated at 
Athens in honor of Ceres, were the most renowned, and, in 
time, swallowed up practically all of the other mysteries. 
This was due to the fact that the neighbors of Athens 
gradually celebrated these mysteries to the neglect of thyr 
own, with the result that in a short time all Greece and 
Asia Minor followed these mysteries, and they at length 
spread over the whole Roman empire and beyond its limits. 
Zosismus stated that : ' ' These most holy rites were then so 
extensive, as to take in the whole of mankind ; ' ' and Aris- 
tides called Eleusis the common temple of the earth. 

It has been stated by writers who knew nothing of the 
ancient initiation, that a future state of rewards and pun- 
ishments had been taught. This is not true in the sense 
commonly understood. It is true that they taught that 
there were different states after the change called death, 
but this was a state of mind, in the same sense that two 
people, with equal amount of wealth and all other material 
things may live in the same house and yet, one may be 
happy while the other may be extremely unhappy and all 
for the reason that one may be conscience free while the 
other has a conscience which condemns him. They are both 
in the same place, but one is in heaven and the other in hell. 
It is this which punishes men and it is this mystery which 
was taught in the initiation. It would have been utterly 
impossible for the masters or initiators of those times to 
teach the people that their own conscience was the only 
judge in both the present and the future state for these 
people would have totally condemned such a doctrine. 
They, the people, needed to believe that there was a God, a 



40 ' MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

personal Being, to judge them and to reward them and that 
there must needs be a place for all, whether heaven or hell. 
The Initiation taught the Initiate that the God to judge him 
was his own conscience and that the heaven or hell of the 
future was not a place but a state. This was one of the 
grand mysteries and this same mystery Christ taught when 
He said : " As ye sow so shall ye reap. ' ' 

"The soul never forgets. The over-laden brain of 
humanity retains the impression of every image presented 
to it. As each fresh succession of images photographs itself 
on the mind's tablet, the last seem to crowd out and efface 
the impress of the earlier ones. They vanish from sight 
truly, but they are still there, and they remain there for- 
ever. Unconsciously to their possessors, they enter into 
every phase of character. They linger like a subtle per- 
fume in the sphere of unconscious cerebration, pervade the 
sentiments, enter into the mental structure, shape the 
motives, externalize themselves in words which linger in 
others' ears, in deeds which effect others' destinies, and 
silently interweave themselves into invisible but inde- 
structible images, reflected upon the astral light of the Uni- 
verse. Could this most subtle, but most potential realm of 
being be thoroughly explored, all the thoughts, words, and 
deeds, that have ever moved the race would be found in 
ineffaceable pictures engraved upon the billows of astral 
light that heave and swell through the oceans of infinity. 
Nothing is lost in nature, nothing blotted out in eternity, 
and future generations, living, moving and breathing in the 
astral realms of life imprinted with the soul images of 
vanished ages, inhale them, grow in them, re-combine them 
into the elements of their own characters, and thus live 
again, in ever rolling, but ever ascending cycles of time, 
every sand-grain of ideality that has ever been launched 
into space. 

On account of this being true, the ancient Initiates could 
read the very thoughts and past life of all those who de- 
sired to enter the Temple as aspirants. Such Neophytes 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 4 1 

were thus astonished, and in some instances horror-struck 
to hear one after another — the masters starting 'forth, each 
in turn rehearsing all the errors or shortcomings of his past 
life, dragging to light even his secret desires, and the hidden 
things of his inmost nature. 

It is also stated that the mysteries taught the doctrine of 
metempsychosis, or the belief in a prior state. This is true, 
the doctrine of reincarnation has been taught ever since 
man became man ; this doctrine was taught in the Atlantean 
mysteries, it was taught in the Essenian mysteries and it 
was taught by Christ for He asked his disciples : ' ' Whom 
do they say I am?" and the answers to His questions prove 
conclusively that He believed in this doetine and it is one 
of the cardinal doctrines of the Initiation of the Ancient 
Order of the present day. This doctrine was not new to the 
Egyptians, it had been taught thousands of years before 
Egypt knew anything concerning the mysteries and it has 
been the foundation of the religion of India thousands upon 
thousands of years ago. 

It was taught in the mysteries, that the initiated would 
be happier in the future state than other mortals; that the 
souls of the profane, upon the change called death, stuck 
fast in mire and filth, in a word, in the earthly, and re- 
mained in darkness for ages perhaps, and this doctrine is 
still held and is a foundation that neither doctrine nor creed 
can shake, and why? It was the work of Initiation to start 
man as a child: "Ye must become as little children" and 
teach them the doctrine of purity. Men, neophytes, who 
entered the Temples were required to lead an absolutely 
pure life, — ritualism was not known, and not only was a 
pure life required but each man was placed under a certain 
training or development with but one end in view — the 
finding of the Christ within himself. This was the aim of 
Initiation, and no one could become an Initiate until he had 
found the Christ within himself. After this was accom- 
plished he was an Initiate and could then understand what 
was later taught by Christ when he said: "Ye are the 



42 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

Temples of the Living God." The Masters of the Mysteries 
were therefore justified in saying- that the Initiation assured 
a happy future state for men became conscious beings, be- 
ings exactly as Christ became during his initiation into the 
Essenian Mysteries. Plato plainly stated that: "It was 
the end and aim to restore the soul to its original purity." 
It is easy to understand that the masses, who did not under- 
go such purification and development of the soul, could 
naturally not expect to pass from the present to the future 
with the same feeling of perfection. They, the Masters,' in 
the mysteries, contrived that everything should tend to show 
the necessity of virtue, as taught by Epictetus. "Thus," 
he taught, "the mysteries became useful, thus we seize the 
true spirit of them, when we begin to apprehend that every- 
thing therein was instituted by the ancients, for instruction 
and amendment of life. Porphyry gives some of the moral 
precepts which were enforced in the mysteries and among 
these are : to honor their parents, to forbear cruelty to 
animals, to be of clear and unblemished character and free 
even from suspicion as to any crime. 

It was not necessary to confess to the Hierophant as to 
any crimes committed by the applicant for these things be- 
came known to the Priests within a short time and without 
any confession. When Nero, after the murder of his 
mother, took a journey into Greece, and had intention to be 
present at the celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries, he 
was refused admission thereto. Emperor M. Antoninus 
purged himself to the world of the death of Avidius Cassius, 
and chose to be initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries, as it 
was a well known fact that none were admitted 1 into the 
mysteries who labored under the punishment of any im- 
morality. This was a fundamental doctrine and was ob- 
served by all connected with the mysteries. 

All Initiated were ordered to observe the greatest purity 
and the highest elevation of the mind. "When you sacrifice 
and pray, ' ' ordered Epictetus, ' ' go with a prepared purity 
of mind, and with disposition so disposed as are required 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 43 

of you when you approach the ancient rites and mysteries. ' ' 
And' Proclus tells us that the mysteries and the initiations 
drew the souls of men from the material, se\nsual, and 
merely hummi life, and joined them in communion with the 
gods." Nor was a less degree of purity demanded of the 
initiated in their future conduct. All Initiates were obliged 
by solemn obligations, to commence a new life of strict 
purity and virtue ; into which they were started by a severe 
course of training, necessary to purge the mind of its 
natural defilements. Exactly the same thing is required at 
the present day in order to enter upon the course of train- 
ing. It may be questioned by readers as to whether these 
mysteries still live at the present day and whether such in- 
itiations take place, to which the answer is: "These in- 
itiations take place at the present day as in ancient days, 
except that they are not as public and the neophytes or ap- 
plicants were fewer. ' ' 

Gregory Naxiensen states that: "No one could be in- 
itiated into the mysteries of Mithras, until he had under- 
gone all sorts of trials, and had proved himself holy and 
impassible." 

The initiated, under this discipline, were esteemed the 
only happy men. Aristophanes, who speaks the sense of the 
people, makes them exult and triumph after the following 
manner: "On us only does the sun (spirit) dispense his 
blessings ; we only receive pleasure from his beams ; we, AA r ho 
are initiated, and perform towards strangers and citizens 
all acts of piety and justice." And this can be easily under- 
stood and appreciated when we remember that the initiated 
were those who had found the Chnst and therefore could 
justly claim to be in communication with God, for we must 
still remember that Christ said: "Lo, I have been with. you 
always," and thus, no matter the age, men could find the 
Christ long centuries before the Christian era. 

"Happy is the man," said Euripides, "who hath been 
initiated into the greater mysteries, and leads a life of piety 
and religion." And Trygaeus, the honest farmer in the 



44 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

Pax of Aristphanes, said: "I must be initiated before I 
die." 

The Athenians believed that those who were initiated and 
instructed in the mysteries, would obtain divine honors 
after death; and many therefore entered upon the initia- 
tion. These honors were not given because a man were 
simply an Initiate, but because by becoming am, Initiate he 
had to purify himself, relive past deeds, amd greatest of all, 
learn to know and feel that he was really the temple of the 
Living God, and therefore he found the Christ even in the 
present life and naturally, after death, he simply entered 
upon a similar pure state in another pla{ne, or what would 
be, by the Christians of this day, called Heaven. By under- 
standing these mysteries in this sense, the Christian no 
longer can, in honesty, condemn them. We speak of these 
mysteries as they were in their purity, not as they became 
later when ritualism and creed took the place of the train- 
ing and true initiation. Everything in these mysteries took 
place under the most solemn obligation and therefore none 
of the secrets could be given to the masses nor yet to our 
foolish historians who think they know from having been 
told and not because they were of the initiated. 

There were other and sufficient reasons for this secrecy 
and St. Augustin states that: "There were many truths, 
which it was inconvenient for the state to be. generally 
known: and many things, which, though false (in their 
form) it was best for the people to believe; and that, there- 
fore, the Greeks shut up their mysteries in the silence of 
their sacred enclosures. ' ' 

In order that this strange contradiction may be ex- 
plained, we must not forget that in the Eleusinian rites 
there were two mysteries, the lesser and the greater, or the 
inner and the outer. The inner mysteries were for the In- 
itiates and in them was taught, as before stated, the true 
meaning of Initiation and development and also that man's 
conscience was his judge. This could not be taught to the 
people, or rather, it had been taught to them but they could 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 45 

not understand it, and therefore we have the outer mysteries 
in which the masses believe that there was a personal God to 
judge them. The same with the doctrines of rewards and 
punishment. The masses could not comprehend the mystery 
and they could therefore be induced to do good only 
through their fear of punishment or judgment after death. 
It was thus why the people believe in that which was, ap- 
parently, an untrouth but which was founded upon a great 
truth, and this was one of the outer mysteries. Centuries 
after, when it was attempted to teach the people these inner 
truths, it simply resulted in the profanation of the 
mysteries, for when men desire the truth they will seek it 
and it will do no good, nor will any good purpose be ac- 
complished by "throwing pearl before swine." 

Both the lesser and the greater mysteries were originally 
instituted for the benefit of the people, and it therefore fol- 
lows that the doctrines taught in both were equally for the 
benefit of society, and it was only when unpractical initiates 
tried to teach the masses what was taught in the inner that 
these mysteries fell into idolatry. 

The lesser mysteries were hardly anything more than the 
inner mysteries in clothes such as all could see and compre- 
hend. In all doctrines, in all ages, they had to be in such a 
form that the masses could understand and follow them, 
and this object was accomplished in the lesser mysteries. 

The ancient mysteries demanded nothing of its followers 
which could not be given. We must admit that all men can 
follow a life of purity, we must admit that all men can be 
honest if they desire to be so and above all, we must admit 
that a man can be a man if he makes up his mind to that 
effect. We know that this is rather hard at the present day 
as it no doubt was in ancient days, but we know that with 
self-denial it can be done. This is just what the Ancient 
Mysteries demand of every one — self-denial. There is noth- 
ing on earth that can or will bring to the surface the better 
part in a man as will self-denial, and the Hierophants of old 
knew this as well as do the Hierophants of this day. 



46 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

It mayi have been claimed by the knowing ones that the 
ancient rites were rites of licentiousness. Nothing could be 
further from the truth and no master, no Initiate of the 
past ages has ever claimed such a thing. True; we find these 
things in books on ancient religion, but these books are not 
by Initiates. The very fact that a life of purity was de- 
manded of each aspirant proves this, for a man cannot live 
both a pure life and a licentious one. 

It has also been stated that it was taught that such 
masters or founders were mortal men, that Jupiter, Mer- 
cury, Bacchus, Mars, were men in the flesh at one time. 
This is also an absurd falsehood for these beings simply 
represented 1 a certain great power or principle and had 
nothing to do with mortal beings. "We know that these 
claims are made but we also know that they were not made 
by the Initiates and what can an ignorant man know of 
what goes on in the Masonic Lodge. Even suppose he were 
told, he would not understand, and thus it is with the 
Ancient Mysteries and its so-called historians. 

Regarding the doctrine of the Unity, Clemens Alexan- 
drinus says, that the Egyptian Hierophants taught it among 
their greater mysteries. "The Egyptians did not reveal 
their mysteries indiscriminately to all, nor expose their 
truths concerning their gods to the profane, but to those 
only who were to succeed to the administration of the state; 
and to such of the priests as were only most approved, by 
their education, and quality." And we must bear in mind 
that this was the period of the Priest-Kings, or when each 
one, before he could be King, had to be an Initiate first. It 
was during this time that Egypt was in all her glory. 

Concerning the Grecian mysteries, Chrysippus, as stated 
by the author of the Etymol. Magnum, said: "The secret 
doctrine concerning divine matters are rightly called 
Teletai, for that these are the last things the initiated 
should be informed of; the soul, having gained an able sup- 
port (having found itself), can keep silent before the un- 
initiated and profane," And Clemens stated: "The doc- 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 47 

trines delivered in the greater mysteries are concerning the 
universe. Here all instructions end. Things are seen and 
known as they are; and nature, and the things of nature, 
are given to be comprehended. ' ' In other words, the things 
of the spirit are known as they are, for man, as an Initiate, 
has found the Christ and therefore the source of the spirit, 
and he has also been taught to know the secrets of nature. 
He knows all that mortal man can know. 

Strabo said: "Nature dictated to men the institution of 
the mysteries, as well as the other rites of religion, that the 
secret celebration of the mysteries preserves the majesty 
due the Divinity, and at the same time imitates its nature, 
which hides itself from the senses." And here we are 
brought face to face with the mystery of the thrice wise 
Hermes when he said: "As above, so beloAV." As in 
heaven so must it be on earth. Man cannot know the secrets 
of nature unless he first learns the secret of the spirit or 
comes into harmonious relation with the spirit. Therefore, 
in order to knmv God, man must also learn to know the laws 
of nature. The initiation was simply for the purpose of 
developing all the faculties 01 the human being and make 
him as unto God. Plutarch taught that: "The first cause 
of all things is communicated to those who approach the 
temple of Isis with prudence and sanctity. Idle curiosity 
could avail nothing ; the mysteries could only be had in one 
way, and that way was by living the life and therefore come 
into conscious communicatio , n with God or the gods. 

The two great mysteries of the Egyptian Initiation were 
the teachings concerning the existence of the one Supreme 
Being — the one God, implying the error of polytheism, and 
a future state of the soul which naturally included pre- 
existence. Both of these mysteries were taught to the people 
but they were not understood in the senses that they were 
taught in the inner mysteries. The people could not com-" 
prehend that they themselves, or rather, their own con- 
science must be the judge of their own acts. 

Regarding the doctrine of obtaining the remission of sins, 



4* MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

by the performance of certain mystic rites, as is customary 
by the Jews and which is followed' by the Roman Catholic 
Church at the present day, this was not taught in the inner 
mysteries nor by Christ, for both plainly taught: ''As 
ye sow so shall ye reap." Christ as an Initiate was taught 
this law and in turn He taught it to all the people. 

Regarding the laws of Moses for the people, it need but be 
known that Moses himself was an Initiate in the Egyptian 
Mysteries and we must conclude with an author who states : 

"We have no profane records* that can reach, by many 
hundred years so highly as the ancient state and constitu- 
tion of the religion and priesthood of Egypt, in and before 
the days of Moses. But as the Mosaic constitution itself 
was accommodated to the natural temper and bias of a 
people perfectly Egyptianized, and who knew nothing but 
the Language, 'Religion, Laws, and Customs of Egypt ; and 
as this people could never be brought off from the religion 
and customs to which they had been naturalized, the history 
of Moses and the prophets gives one almost as just and 
adequate a notion of the religion, priesthood, and worship 
of Egypt, as if their own history had been handed down to 
us. Of this we need no other, or more authentic, authority 
than the Mosaic law and history. And though Moses at- 
tempted, in his law, to reform the religion of Egypt, with 
regard to their symbolical polytheism, or sideral worship, 
yet this could never be effected ; but the gross of the people 
still continued in the symbolic worship of Egypt, except 
when restrained from it by force and compulsion under 
some of their kings. But they immediately fell back again 
to the same sort of religion and worship, as soon as that re- 
striction and legal persecution was relaxed or taken off." 

Can we want more evidence than this to prove what has 



*There are no records of the Egyptian Mysteries to be 
had by the profane. But the Old Initiation, as in the times 
of Moses, is still to be had as in the foretime and the records, 
to be found in the secret archives, are as complete as ever. 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 49 

already been stated, i.e., that the Priesthood would have 
been willing to teach the truth to the masses but that the 
masses would not accept it because they must needs have 
some form to worship ? Moses, in all his power and with his 
complete initiation could not lead even his own people to 
accept the one God, although they had been taught to look 
for something better. The Egyptian masses were the same, 
they could not and would not accept the one God, it was too 
simple for them and therefore they had to have the many 
Gods and festivals, while the Priesthood reserved the inner 
mysteries for themselves. 

Not only would the masses not accept the truths as taught 
in the inner mysteries but they would condemn those who 
tried to teach them the truth. After all, this is only what 
happened to Jesus, the Initiate of the first century. 

Diagoras, the Melian, revealed the Orphic and Eleusian 
mysteries ; and was condemned by the people as an atheist. 
He also dissuaded his friends from being initiated into 
these mysteries, with the result that the city of Athens pro- 
scribed him and even set a price on his head. Socrates was 
no initiate but knew many of the truths and tried to teach 
the people ; the result was, a poison cup. It has ever been 
thus and we of this twentieth century can no longer blame 
the Initiates of the Priesthood for not teaching the people 
the truth for they, as Christ, tried to teach them, but the 
masses were not willing to receive their teaching. 

Aristides stated that the welfare of Greece was secured 
by the Eleusinian mysteries alone. In fact, the Greeks 
placed their chief happiness in them. Euripides makes 
Hercules say, ' ' I was blest when I got sight of the 
mysteries;" and it was a proverbial speech, when any one 
thought himself in the highest degree happy, to say, "I 
seem as if I had been initiated in the Higher Mysteries." 

But such is the fate of all things, that these mysteries, 
sacred as they were, were gradually corrupted through a 
number of reasons. One of the greatest of these reasons 
was, that in many cases, inferior priests of these mysteries, 



5° MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

and oft times candidates or students in the mysteries, would 
leave the Order or Priesthood and his country, and set up 
for himself, and in a clandestine manner, without the per- 
mission or knowledge of his superiors, and institute and cele- 
brate the mysteries in such manner as he knew them. It is 
no wonder that all countries received these degenerates. 
They could not give the truth nor the true initiation and the 
result was a prostitution of the real mysteries with the con- 
sequent foul deeds. Such was the original of those horrid 
impieties committed in the mysteries of Bacchus at Rome, 
of which the historian Livy has given an account, for, in the 
beginning of his story, he tells of the mischief which was 
occasioned by one of these priests ( ?) bringing the mysteries 
into Etruria on his own responsibility, uncommissioned by 
his superiors in Greece, from whom he had learnt them; 
and unauthorized by the State into which he had introduced 
them. The words of Livy show that the mysteries were, in 
their own nature, a very different affair, and were for the 
improvement of knowledge and virtue. "A Greek of mean 
extraction, a little priest and soothsayer, came first into 
Etruria, without any skill or wisdom in mysterious rites, 
many sorts of which, that most improve people have brought 
in amongst us, for the culture and perfection of both mind 
and body." 

It is thus that the terrible deeds were brought about in 
all countries, not by the Initiates or Hierophants, but by 
fools, who were jealous of those who taught the truth and 
thus grafted upon a people the greatest of crimes under 
sacred symbols. The Hierophants, Priests and Initiates 
were not to blame, they kept the mysteries in their first 
purity; — it was those who knew nothing who did the evil. 
And just as fast as these profane mysteries were taken up 
by the people, just that much did the real Initiates draw 
away from the people until at last only the foul remains of 
clandestine priests remained and the true mysteries were 
no longer known to the people. 

At the time of Christ, there was but one great Order of 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 5 1 

these mysteries known and this was the Essenian. Christ 
and many of his disciples were Initiates of these mysteries, 
as is easily proven. Is. Casaubon in his Annals of Baronius, 
said: 

"When the fathers found it to be an easier way of bring- 
ing over minds, corrupted by superstition, to the love of 
truth, they first adopted many terms used in their rites;* 
and 1 after thus treating of several heads of the true doc- 
trines, they further adopted some of their ceremonies; that 
they might seem to be saying, as Paul said to the Gentiles, 
'Whom ye ignorantly worship the same do I declare unto 
you. ' Thence it came that the fathers called the sacraments 
by the same names as were used to describe the mysteries, as 
mueseis, teletas, teleiosei, epopteias, or. epopseias, tclesreria, 
and somtimes, but more rarely, rites. The Eucharist they 
emphatically denominated the mystery of mysteries; and 
also, by autonomy, the mystery, or in the plural, the 
mysteries. And you may everywhere read in the writings 
of the fathers, when treating of the holy communion, the 
words phrieta, mysteria, or aporeton, mysterion, referring 
to those that were to be divulged and those that were not.* 
So the Greek verb myesthai in the ancient writing is often 
employed to signify the becoming a partaker of the Lord's 



*Here we are again face to face with the problem of 
teaching the masses. Christ and his teachers, or co-teachers, 
were Initiates and knew the truths as taught in the initia- 
tion. They tried to teach the mysteries to the people but 
found they could not teach the masses without the forms 
and rites of the mysteries. It is thus simply the same old 
story as in the time of Ancient Egypt. It is ever thus. 

*Right here we have the same thing as in the Ancient 
Mysteries of the Egyptian. An inner and an outer mystery.. 
The inner which belonged to the fathers or Initiates, and an 
outer which was to be given to the masses. It does not be- 
come scholars to condemn the Ancient Egyptians Avhen they 
will find that the early and true Christians had the same 
mysteries, 



5 » MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

Supper ;t and the term myesin for the act itself, and mystes 
for the priest, who is also called mystagogon and hiero- 
telestes,£romthel&stth.etermhierophant, which means master 
or teacher, is derived. In the Greek liturgies and elsewhere 
hiera telete and cryphia kai epiphobos telete (the hidden 
and awful mystery) means the Eucharist.* 

"And as certain degrees were used in the Ancient rites, 
so in like manner Dionysius divides the whole tradition of 
the sacraments into three, distinguished by their season and 
ceremonies.t The first was catharsis, the purgation, or 
purification, the second the myestis or initiation, and the 
third, teleosis or the consummation* which they also fre- 
quently called epopsian, or the revered. Tully had before 
affirmed that the Athenian mysteries brought to the dying 



tThe Lord's Supper is nothing more or less than the con- 
summation of the development or initiation of an aspirant. 
When he reached the last of the mysteries, i.e., when he had 
found Christ, or learned to know that he was the temple of 
the living God, he became a partaker of the Lord's Supper. 
This is the meaning of that much abused term. 

*Here again we find that the Eucharist was not original 
with the Christians but that the same was known, and the 
same was, with the Ancient Greek mysteries. This was 
known centuries before the Christian period. 

tHere again we have the three ceremonies of the Ancient 
Mysteries. It corresponds correctly with both the number 
of ceremonies and with the seasons of the Ancient Mysteries 
and there is again nothing new in this, or anything which 
originated with the Christians. 

SThis also is exactly that which we find in the Ancient 
Mysteries. 1. The entering of the aspirant, during which 
stage he had to purify himself in thoughts, in living and in 
all other things. 2. The training and development and the 
final mysteries. 3. The consummation, in which he found 
that he was the very "Son of God," or in other words, that 
he was the " living temple of the living God," as Christ 
taught us that we were. Thus we have proof positive that 
the Christian mysteries were nothing more than the Ancient 
Mysteries under another aspect and changed so as to meet 
the demands of the times, 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 53 

better hopes. On their part, the fathers maintained, that 
the mysteries of Christ brought certain salvation* and 
eternal life to those who worthily partook of them; and that 
for those who condemned them there was no salvation; and 
they did not scruple to say that the end and ultimate fruit 
of the sacraments was deification,t when they knew that the 
authors of those vain superstitions* had dared to promise 
the same honor to their initiates. And, therefore, you may 
read in the fathers that the end of the holy mystagogies was 
deification, and that those who faithfully received them 
should in the life to come be Gods. Athanasias has used the 
verb theopoiesilta (to deity) in the same sense, and subse- 
quently confirmed it by saying', 'that by partaking of the 
spirit we are united to the God-head.' Of the symbols of 
the sacraments by which those ceremonies are celebrated, it 
is not here the place to treat; but that which is called a 



*It is really a fact that the mysteries of Christ do bring 
certain salvation to the Initiate, but this must be under- 
stood in the sense used. The mystery of Christ is no less 
than to find the Christ within ourselves through certain de- 
velopment, purification, mediation, etc. This can be ac- 
complished as the sacred fraternity at this day is proving. 
Jesus taught that we, like him, were all the ''Sons of the 
Living God" and that it was only necessary to follow his 
instructions in order to obtain the book of immortality, or 
the becoming of the Sons of God. 

tThe sacrament of deification is not impossible, for did 
not Jesus himself teach that we were but lesser Gods? "Ye 
are the temple of the Living God," therefore, we, through 
a certain life, can become the temples of God. In other 
words, if, in accordance with the words of Jesus himself, 
God can be brought to dwell in us, why then are we not 
deified ? Surely this must be so or the very foundation of the 
Christian religion is a farce. It is truth however, as true as 
it was in the true Egyptian Mysteries or Initiation. "He 
who hath most of love hath most of God, for God is love. ' ' 

tit is plain to see that the author himself believed neither 
in the Christie teachings nor in the Ancient Mysteries. 
However, the belief or disbelief of man neither hurts nor 
does any good to either the old or the new mysteries. 



54 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

symbol of faith is various in its kinds, and they serve as 
tokens or tests by which the faithful may recognize each 
other. And we show that the same were used in the Ancient 
Mysteries. The formula pronounced by the deacons, 'De- 
part hence, all ye catechumens, all ye possessed and un- 
initiated,' corresponds with the 'procul este prof am' of the 
ancients. Many rites of the ancients were performed in the 
night, and Guadentius has the expression ' splendidissima 
nox vigiliarium, the brightest night of the vigils. And as to 
what we have said of the silence observed by the ancients in 
their secret devotions, the ancient or first Christians so far 
approved, that they exceeded all their mysteries in that ob- 
servance. And as Seneca has observed, the most holy of the 
sacred rites were known to the initiated only; and Jam- 
blichus on the philosophy of the Pythagoreans has dis- 
tinguished between the aporreta which could not be carried 
aboard, and the exphora, which might ; so the early Chris- 
tians distinguished their whole doctrines into those which 
might be divulged to all (the exphora) and the aporreta, or 
arcana, which were not rashly to be disclosed. Their dogmas, 
says Basilus, they kept secret, their preaching was public. 
And Chrysostom, treating of those who were baptized for 
the dead, says, 'I verily desire to relate the matter fully, but 
I dare not be particular, because of the uninitiated.' They 
make it difficult for us in the interpretation, and oblige us 
either to speak without precision, or else to disclose what 
they should not be informed of; and as the ancients used 
the term exorchcislhai ta mystcria, touching those who di- 
vulged the mysteries, so Dionysius says, 'See that you do 
not disclose, nor slightly reverence the mysteries, and every- 
where in Augustinus, you will read of the sacraments known 
to the faithful. And thus (in Johannem, tract xvi) 'all the 
catechumens already believe in Christ, but Christ does not 
trust them ; and if we should ask one of them whether he eat 
of the flesh of the Son of man, he would not understand 
what we meant;' and again, 'The catechumen are ignorant 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 55 

of what the Christians receive.' Let them blush that they 
are ignorant." 

"A catechumen is a candidate for baptism, or a person 
who prepares* himself for receiving it. Towards the end 
of the first century, Christians were divided into two orders, 
distinguished by the names of believers and catechumens. ,t 
The latter, as contra-distinguished from the former, were 
such as had 1 not yet been dedicated to God and Christ by 
baptism, and were, therefore, admitted neither to the holy 
communion nor to the ecclesiastical assemblies. As they 
were not allowed to assist at the celebration of the eucharist 
the deacon dismissed them, after sermon, with this formula, 
"Itc catcchumeni missa est." 

"Quod norunt fideles," what the faithful know. These 
words, or, as expressed in Greek, Isasin oi pemuemenoi, 
forms what may be called the watchword of the secret, and 
occur constantly in the fathers. Thus St. Chrysostom, for 
instance — in whose writings Casaubon remarked the recur- 
rence of this phrase at least fifty times, in speaking of the 
tongue (comment in Psalm 153), says, "reflect that this is 
the member with which we receive the tremendous sacri- 
fice — the faithful know ivhat I speak of." . Hardly less fre- 
quent is the occurrence of the same phrase in St. Augustin, 
who seldom ventures to intimate the eucharist in any other 
way than by the words "quod norunt fideles." 

"It was in the third century, when the followers of 
Christ were most severely tried by the fires of persecution, 
that the discipline of secrecy, with respect to this (the 



*Here we have with the Christians as with the mysteries, 
first it was necessary to prepare for the baptism, which is 
only another name for Initiation. 

tin this we find nothing short of the lesser and greater 
mysteries. The first for all, in which all people could share, 
but the second only for those who were preparing them- 
selves for the greater. There is no difference whatever be- 
tween the Ancient and the Christian Mysteries except in 
the name. 



56 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

Eucharist) and the oilier mysteries, was most strictly ob- 
served. ' '* 

"A faithful concealment," says Tertullian, "is due to 
all mysteries from the very nature and constitution of them. 
How much more must it be due to such mysteries as, if they 
were once discovered, could not escape immediate punish- 
ment from the hands of man." 

The Egyptians observed that from one year to another 
the overflowing of the Nile was always preceded by an 
etesian (annual) wind, which, blowing from north to south, 
about the time of the passage of the sun under the stars of 
the crab, drove the vapors towards the south, and gathered 
them in the middle of the country (Ethiopa, now Nubia 
and Abyssinia), whence the Nile came; which there caused 
plentiful rains that swelled the waters of the river and 
brought on the inundation of lower Egypt. 

But they wanted the means of knowing esactly the time 
when it should be necessary for them to prepare for the 
inundation. The flowing of the river beyond its banks hap- 
pened some days sooner or later, when the sun was under 
the stars of the lion. Near the stars of Cancer, though 
pretty far from the band of the Zodiac towards the south, 
and a few weeks after their rising, they saw in the morning 
one of the most brilliant, if not the largest star of the whole 
heavens, ascending the horizon. It appeared a little before 
the rising of the sun, which had rendered it almost invisible 
for a month or two before. The Egyptians then took the 
rising of this magnificent star as the infallible sign of the 
sun's passing under the stars of Leo, and the beginning of 
the inundation. The star thus became the public mark, on 
which every one was to keep a watchful eye, not to miss the 
instant of retiring to the higher ground. 

The early Egj^ptians gave this star two names. It warn- 
ed them of the danger, whereupon they called it Thaaut 
or Thayuat, the dog; they called it also the Barker, the 



Travels in Search of a Religion, Phila. ed. p. 82. 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 57 

Monitor, in Egyptian Anubis; in Phoenician, Hannobech; 
which shows the analogy there was between thetwo languages. 
The connection of this star and the rising of the river 
caused the people to call it more commonly the Nile star, or 
simply the Nile. 

In Egyptian and in Hebrew, Sihor ; in Greek, Seitois ; in 
Latin, Sirius. The Egyptians gave it also in later times, the 
name of Sothis or Thotes, which is the same with his other 
name, Thot, the God, with simply a different pronunciation. 

The inhabitants, retiring into their towns on the warning 
of the northern wind and the dog-star,* remained there two 
months or more, until the waters were drained. It was thus 
necessary for the Egyptians to carefully observe the termi- 
nation of the vernal winds, the return of the northern, 
which began with the summer, and at last the rising of the 
dog-star,t which had so much importance to them. 

During their inaction, after the rising of the river be- 
yond its banks, their attention was directed to the observ- 
ance of the southern winds, more moderate than those of 
the spring, and which facilitated the flowing of the river 
towards the Mediterranean, by the conformity of their 

*The rising of the dog-star "was generally accompanied 
with what the Egj^tians called the Etesian northern wind 
that continued to blow for about forty days. When this 
wind failed to occur at this period, or was too light to be 
of use in causing the swelling of the Nile to a sufficient 
height, a general sadness of the people ensued. "While the 
inhabitants remained idle on the high ground, watching the 
progress of the inundation, these forty days were passed 
in fasting and other acts of devotion to gain the favor of 
their gods. The constant blowing during the forty days 
that followed the rising of the dog star are called the dog 
days, and from this comes our modern dog days. 

Sirius is the second decan or constellation of the zodiacal 
sign "Gemini." This is the great dog, anciently the wolf, 
the special hunter and devourer of the hare, Lepus, which 
is signified in the first decan of the same sign. On the Den- 
clera zodiac Sirius is represented as the eagle or hawk. This 
star is called Sirius, from Sir or Scir, which means Prince, 



58 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

blowing with its direction, which was from south to north; 
also to measuring the depth of the river, in order to regu- 
late their husbandry according to the quantity of mud, 
which was always proportioned to the degree of the in- 
crease. 

This symbol was peculiarly applicable to the Egyptians 
who inhabited the delta, who by placing a reliance upon the 
warning providently given by this star, and in consequence 
retiring to the high ground with the produce of their agri- 
culture, might enjoy the comforts that surrounded them. 

This same necessity which rendered the Egyptians 
astronomers made them also painters and writers. The in- 
spection of the heavens had taught them at last how to regu- 
late their tillage, so strangely crossed by that disposition 
which was peculiar to Egypt. The custom of giving sym- 
bolical names to the objects that served them as rules most 
naturally led them to delineate the figures of these symbols 
in order to inform the nation of the works in common to 
be done, and the annual events with regard to which it was 
dangerous to misreckon. This service was performed by a 



Guardian, the Victorious. In connection with the name of 
the figure in the Egyptian zodiac, as frequently given, we 
have Naz-Seir, or Nazir; Naz-Seir means the Sent Prince. 
So the rod that promised to come forth from the root of 
Jesse is called Netzer in the Hebrew Bible and is there 
translated "the branch," the princely scion who should 
"smithe the earth with the rod of His mouth, and slay the 
wicked with the sign of His breath," and this Prince is at 
once "the Sent Prince, the Messiah," the Netzer of Isaiah 
and the Naz-Seir of these equally prophetic constellations. 
And this is Him of whom Matthew said, "He came and 
dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled 
which was spoken by the Prophets, He shall be called Naz- 
Seir-ener (Matt. 2*:23.) 

tThe Anubis, or Dog-star, so useful to the ancient Egyp- 
tians, is the blazing star of Masonry ; although the majority 
of the craft are ignorant of this fact and its origin as a 
Masonic symbol, they are only taught the moral drawn 
from its original emblematical use. 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 59 

number of persons appointed for that purpose and main- 
tained at the public expense, whose duty it was to study 
the revolutions and aspects of the heavenly bodies, and to 
communicate the necessary information to the people. 

The Hawk and the Hoop. 

The hawk and the hoop were the names and the sym- 
bolical figures given the two winds, the return of which the 
Egyptians were most concerned to observe. The hawk sig- 
nified the Etesian northern wind, which, in the beginning 
of the summer, drove the vapors towards the south, and 
which, covering Ethiopia with thick clouds, there resolved 
into rains, and made the Nile swell all along its course. The 
hoop, on the contrary, signified the southern wind, which 
promoted the draining of the waters, and the return of 
which proclaimed the measuring of the lands and the time 
of sowing. As to the analogy, and their peculiar resem- 
blance, between a hawk and the northern, and a hoop and 
the southern winds: 

Naturalists observed that the hawk delights in the north ; 
but that at the return of mild weather, and when she casts 
her feathers, she makes southward with her wings spread, 
and looks towards the place whence a warm air comes, 
which may assist the falling of her own feathers, and re- 
store to her the beauties of youth. In times of the remotest 
antiquity, and even before Moses, the Arabians, who were 
the neighbors and allies of the Egyptians, had an idea of 
the hawk in all respects like that which naturalists now give 
us. In the conversation which God had with Job, and in 
which he shows that it is not man, but the Creator, who, 
by a special providence, has varied all the parts of nature, 
and to good purpose has regulated the inclinations of ani- 
mals: "Does the hawk, He said to him, by thy wisdom 
shake her old feathers, to get rid of them, and stretch her 
wings towards the south f" (Job 39:29). This bird, on 
account of the direction of its flight at the return of the 
heats, was the most natural emblem or symbol of the annual 



60 MYSTERIES OE OSIRIS 

"wind, which blow T s from north to south about the summer 
solstice, and which on account of the effects of this direc- 
tion was of so great importance to the Egyptians. 

The hoop, on the contrary, makes her way from south to 
north. She lived on the small worms, an infinite number 
of which were hatched in the mud of the Nile. She took 
her flight from Ethiopia into higher Egypt, and from 
thence towards Memphis, where the Nile divided. She 
always followed the course of the Nile, as it retired within 
its banks, down to the sea. From this method of hers she 
w r as eminently fit to characterize the direction of the south 
wind. 

The warning given by the dog star being their most 
important concern, the Egyptians from its rising anciently 
dated the beginning of their year, and the whole series of 
their feasts. Wherefore, instead of representing it under 
the form of a star, which might not distinguish it from an- 
other, they delineated it under the figure relative to its 
function and name. They called it the star-dog, the door- 
keeper, the star which opens or shuts, closing one year, as 
it were, and opening another. "When they had a mind to 
express the renewal of the year they represented it under 
the form of a door-keeper, easy to be distinguished by the 
attribute of a hey (a) ; or else they gave it two heads back 
to back, the one of an old man, which marked the expiring 
year, and the other of a young one, which denoted the new. 

a. Before proceeding further, it may be well to give a 
hint here to the faithful student in regard to the "keys of 
St. Peter, ' ' and while not much need be said in explanation, 
a quotation from history, if italics are noted, will explain 
much. 

"When freemasonry was first established in England, 
soon after the edict of Canute, in the beginning of the 
eleventh century, prohibiting in toto the Druidical wor- 
ship (probably the student would like to be reminded that 
freemasonry was established immediately after the Druidi- 
cal worship was forbidden), the strongest oaths were re- 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 6 1 

quired to bind the initiated to secrecy; for had the real 
intent of its founders been known it would have cost them 
their lives. 

"Canute was superstitious, and that he was vindictive 
is evident from his having made a pilgrimage to Borne, 
through excessive religious zeal, and therefore would have 
punished the Druids for any infraction of his edict with 
merciless cruelty. 

"As stated, Canute, one of the most ferocious of warriors, 
made a pilgrimage to Rome. On the road he visited the 
most celebrated churches, leaving everywhere proofs of his 
devotion and liberality. On his return he proceeded imme- 
diately to Denmark, but dispatched the Abbot of Tavistock 
to England with a letter describing the object and issue of 
his journey. In this letter he says: 'It is long since I 
bound myself by my vow to make this pilgrimage ; but I 
have been hitherto prevented by affairs of state and other 
impediments. Now, however, I return humble thanks to 
Almighty God, that He has allowed me to visit the tomb of 
the blessed apostles, Peter and Paul, and every holy place 
within and without the city of Rome, and to honor and ven- 
erate them in person. And this I have done, because I had 
learned from my teachers that the apostle St. Peter receiv- 
ed from the Lord the great power of binding and loosing 
with the keys of the kingdom of heaven. On this account 
I thought it highly useful to solicit his patronage with 
God." 

He concludes his letter: "Lastly, I entreat all rny 
bishops, and all the sheriffs, by the fidelity which they owe 
to me and to God, that the church dues, according to the 
ancient laws, may be paid before my return, namely, the 
plow-alms, the tithes of cattle of the present year, the peter- 
pence, the tithes of fruit — now note — in the middle of 
August, and the kirk-shot at the feast of St. Martin, to the 
parish church. Should this be omitted, at my return I will 
punish the offender by exacting the whole fine appointed 
by law. Fare ye well." Thus all tithes had to be paid in 



62 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

the middle of August, the same time as when the Egyptian 
door-keeper opened the door for the old year to pass out 
and the new to come in, under the exact same "keys" as 
St. Paul' ivas given to — what? To loosen or bind — still 
what? Loosen the door of the Kingdom of Heaven, for the 
old to pass out and the new to come in. Here is a mystery 
which is easily solved and which every student should fully 
understand. 

W!hen the people were to be warned of the time of their 
retreat at the approach of the inundation, instead of the 
two heads they put on the shoulders of a human body the 
head of a dog. The attributes or subordinate symbols, add- 
ed thereto, were the explication of the warning it gave. It 
was in order to give the Egyptians to understand they were 
to take with them a store of provisions, and repair with all 
speed to the high ground, or their raised terraces, and to 
remain there quiet by the water-side. 

The Egyptians expressed the several increases of their 
swelling river by a column marked with one, two or. three 
lines in the form of a cross, and surrounded with a circle, 
the symbol of God, to characterize Providence, which gov- 
erns this important operation. Often, instead of a column, 
they made use of a pole terminated like a T, or crossed 
with one or more transverse pieces. This was not the origin 
of the T cross, as many seem to think, for that was in its 
original form the representation of the male and female in 
perfect harmony. 

The Egyptians painted the devastation made by the 
overflowing water under the figure of a dragon, a crocodile, 
a hippopotamus or some water monster, which they called 
Ob (a), that is, swelling, an overflowing, and which they 
afterwards called Python, the enemy. 

a. The ancient Egyptians, after they had ascertained the 
great benefit of the inundation when they were properly 
prepared for it, changed the name of their evil genius, the 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 63 

water monster, from Ob*' to Python; which had reference 
to the deadly effects of the miasmata arising from the stag- 
nant waters left upon the lowlands after the retiring of the 
inundation. Ovid makes the serpent Python spring from 
the steams of the mud which the deluge had left upon the 
earth; and in this he is making an allusion to Typhon, 
whose name is the same by a simple transposition. In mak- 
ing Python spring from the slime of the deluge, does not 
the poet point out thereby the noxious steams which rise 
in Egypt after the waters of the Nile have subsided ? When 
under this emblem, the victory of Orus over Typhon, or 
he says that Apollo slew him with his arrow he conceals, 
the triumph of the sunbeams over the vapors of the Nile. 
Python is derived from Pytho, Greek, to putrify. The ser- 
pent Python's being slain by Apollo is thus interpreted: 
By Python is to be understood the ruins of water; but 
Apollo — the Sun — dispersing the vapors by his arrows — the 
Sunbeams — slew this serpent. 

Typhus, a species of continued fever, had the same origin. 
"It may be occasioned," says Hooper, in his Medical Dic- 
tionary, "by the effluvia arising from either animal or 
vegetable substances in a decayed or putrid state; and 
hence is, that in low and marshy countries it is apt to be 
prevalent, when intense and sultry heat quickly succeeds 
any great inundation." 

Another method of communicating to the people infor- 
mation respecting the inundation was by publicly exposing 
three vessels or measures, being pitchers of unequal capaci- 
ties, well known to the people, without any proclamation 
or messengers, which served to show them the increase and 
diminution of the Nile. This is the meaning of these ves- 
sels being so commonly found in the Egyptian monuments. 



The descendants of Africa in the West Indies, more 
especially in some parts of Hayti, still retain the name of 
Ob, or Obi, by whose aid they perform in magic powers. 
Their symbol is most usually a white serpent which is at- 
tended as though it were a god. 



64 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

The name canob, or canopus, given these vessels, is founded 
on the use made of them. Canob signifies the fathom of the 
dragon, the measure of the overflowing. From cane, a perch, 
a fathom, a rod, or cane to measure; and from Ob, the 
dragon. 

The canopi are very commonly terminated by one or two 
crosses. The top of the vase is also oftentimes surmounted 
with several birds' heads, to signify and characterize the 
several winds which they knew, and which either assisted 
or retarded the increase or the lowering of the waters ; 
sometimes they put upon the canopus the head of a dog, to 
signify the state of the river, or the time of the rising of 
the dog-star. And at other times they put thereon the Ijead 
of a maid, to mark out the state of the Nile under the sign 
of the virgin, and at the approach of the draining or retir- 
ing of the water. 

The convenience of that language, which rendered itself 
intelligible to the eyes, and in some sense made animals and 
even stones themselves to speak, by degrees became more 
common. It was extended gradually to everything. The 
symbolic writing soon served as the rule of morals, as well 
as the regulation of husbandry. It was made use of to 
perpetuate among the people the knowledge of the most 
important truths, and to inculcate their principal duties. 

Osiris, or the Solar Year. 

The year relates to three principal objects. To the course 
of the sun, the order of the feasts of each season, and to 
the work in common to be done. 

The sun, the grandest object in nature, had also its pecu- 
liar character or mark in the symbolical writing. It was 
called Osiris. This word signified the inspector, the coach- 
man, or the leader, the king, the guide, the moderator, of 
the stars, the soul of the ivorld, the governor of nature, and 
in the Christian times became the representative of the Son 
of Man. From the energy of the terms of which it was 
composed, it signified in general the governor of the earth, 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 65 

■which is in the same sense. It is because they gave that 
name and function to the sun, that it was expressed in the 
ancient writings sometimes by the figure of a man bearing 
a sceptre, sometimes by that of a coachman carrying a whip, 
or simply by an eye, since "eye" and "sun" are expressed 
by the same word in most of the ancient languages of Asia. 
"They were often contented with setting down the 
marks of his dignity, such as a sceptre surmounted with an 
eye, or a sceptre with a serpent twined round it, the sym- 
bol of life which the sun maintains, or barely the whip and 
the sceptre united; sometimes the ropal cap of Osiris on a 
throne, with or without the sceptre." 

The Egyptians everywhere saw, and especially in the 
place of their religious assemblies, a circle or the figure of 
the sun. Near the sun, over the head of the symbolical 
figures, were seen at times one or two serpents, the symbol 
of life, sometimes certain foliages, the symbols of the boun- 
ties of nature; sometimes scavabeus's wings, the emblem of 
the variations of the air. 

The Egyptian masses — not the Priests or Initiates — hav- 
ing gradually contracted a habit of confounding the Most 
High with the sun, gradually mistook the symbol itself cf 
the sun, the Osiris, the moderator of the year, for a man. 
Osiris, from the letter or symbolical personage he was be- 
fore, becoming in the minds of the masses a real person, a 
man who had formerly lived among them, they made his 
history to relate to the attributes which attended the figure ; 
this is precisely what the creedism of the modern church 
has done in the case of Jesus the Nazarene. As soon as 
Egypt, or the masses of the Egyptians, were possessed with 
the notion that the statues of Osiris, Isis and Horus, which 
served to regulate society by their respective significations, 
were monuments of their founders; that Osiris had lived 
in Egypt, and had been interred there, they framed stories 
agreeable to this belief and for this reason there is so much 
misunderstanding concerning the Egyptian symbolism. For 
want of a tomb containing in reality the body of Hammond 



66 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

or Osiris, they were contented with a cenotaph, an empty 
tomb. A vast concourse of people gathered near these pre- 
tended tombs, and with pomp celebrated an annual feast 
there. These tombs, though merely representative, were 
becoming a necessary part of the ceremonial. The Cretans, 
being of Egyptian extraction, had their own feasts of Osiris 
or Jehov, the feast of their god, and, of course, the feast 
of their god, and of the empty tomb, was inseparable from 
that solemnity and from this ancient symbolism we have 
the coffin of Hiram among the emblematical figures of mod- 
ern freemasonry. 

In the collection of Mountfaucon is a copy of a painting 
on a mummy, representing the death and resurrection of 
Osiris, and the beginning, progress and end of the inun- 
dation of the Nile. 

"The sign of the lion is transformed into a couch, upon 
which Osiris is laid out as dead; under which are four 
canopi of various capacities, indicating the state of the Nile 
at different periods. The first is terminated by the head 
of the dog-star, which gives warning of the approach of 
the overflow of the river; the second by the head of the 
hawk, the symbol of the Etesian wind, which tends to swell 
the waters; the third by the head of a heron, the sign of 
the south wind, which contributes to propel the waters into 
the Mediterranean Sea ; and the fourth by that of the Vir- 
gin, which indicates that when the sun had passed that sign, 
the inundation would have nearly subsided. 

"To the above is superadded a large Anubis, who, with 
an emphatic gesture, turning towards Isis, who has an 
empty throne on her head, intimates that the sun, by the 
aid of the lion, had cleared the difficult pass of the tropic of 
Cancer, and was now in the sign of the latter, and although 
in a state of exhaustion, would soon be in a condition to 
proceed on his way to the South ; at the same times, give to 
the husbandmen the important warning of returning to 
avoid the inundation. The empty throne being indicative 
of his being vacated by the death of Osiris. 



OR EGYPTIAN" INITIATION. 67 

In modern Masonry, the raising by the "grip of the lion's 
paw" of the body of G-. M. Hiram, who, as the legend goes, 
had been slain by three fellows of the craft, is copied from 
this ancient myth of the death and the resurrection (a )of 
Osiris. The position of the Master Mason, when in the act 
of raising Hiram, is an exact fac simile of that of Anubis 
over the body of Osiris. 

a. "By the Egyptians as by the Persians, of the religion 
of Zoroaster, both before and after Jesus, by Israelites and 
by Christians of the first and second centuries, the resurrec- 
tion has been interpreted in two ways, the one material and 
absurd, the other spiritual and theosophical. The first is 
the popular idea (of the unlettered masses), finally adopted 
by the Church after the repression of Gnosticism; the 
second is the profound idea of the Initiates. According to 
the first view, the resurrection signifies the return of life of 
the material body; in a word, the reconstitution of the de- 
composed or dispersed corpse, so it was imagined, was 
destined to take place at the coming of the Messiah, or at 
the Last Judgment. It is useless to insist on the gross 
materialism and absurdity of this conception. To the In- 
itiate the resurrection has a far different meaning. It 
refers to the doctrine of the ternary constitution of man. 
It signifies the purification or regeneration of the sidereal, 
ethereal, and fluidic body, which is the very organism of the 
soul. This purification may take place commencing from 
the present life, through the inner work of the soul, and a 
certain method of existence ; although, for the generality of 
mankind, it finds accomplishment only after death, and 
then for those only who, in one way or another, have aspired 
towards justice and truth. In the other world hypocricy is 
impossible. There souls appear as they are in reality, — they 
fatally manifest themselves under the form and color of 
their essence ; dark and hideous if they are evil ; radiant and 
beautiful if they are good. Such is the doctrine given by 
Paul in the Epistle to the Corinthians (I Cor. 15:39-46), 
where he formally says: "There is a natural body and 



f 8 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

there is a spiritual body." Jesus stated this symbolically, 
but with greater profundity, for those who can read the 
spiritual sense of the secret conversation between him and 
Nicodemus. The more a soul is spiritualized, the farther 
will it be from the earthly atmosphere; the farther away 
the cosmic region which attracts it by the law of affinity, 
the more difficult its manifestation to men. ' '* 

This is thus the Christian resurrection and this was un- 
derstood and symbolized by the ancient Egyptians in the 
death and resurrection of Osiris. The mystery has ever been 
the same. 

In a very old hymn to Osiris, translated by M. Chabas, 
Osiris is addressed as the Supreme Being : 

''Lord of Eternity, King of Gods, many are thy names, 
thy holy transformations, thy mysterious forms in the 

temples he abides in the human mouth, the creator of 

the world. Atoum, who among the gods fills the beings with 
happiness ; the benevolent spirit among spirits. 

"From him the celestial abyss draws its waters; from him 
comes the wind and air to breathe and enter the nostrils, 
for his satisfaction and the pleasure of his heart. 

"He causes the soil to bring forth delicious product. 
Heaven and the stars obey him. He opens the great portals ; 
he is the master of invocations in the southern heavens, and 

of adorations in the northern heavens He is good in 

will and word, he is the praise of the great gods and the 
love of the little gods. ' ' 

To show the uniformity of the divine teachings of the 
true Initiates, compare the above with verses 2 and 3 of the 
Sixth KathakaUpanishad. 

"The entire universe moves in the spirit of Brahma; he 
is the issue of that spirit ; he is the great fear, the thunder- 
bolt. Those who know him become immortal. 

' ' Through fear of him the fire burns ; through fear of him 
the sun shines; through fear of him the heavens revolve; 



*"The Last Great Initiate," by A. Schure. 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 6y 

through fear of him death flies; — he the supreme !" 

Perhaps the Christian reader will exclaim, "Why, this is 
Pantheism ! ' ' 

Yes, dear reader, this is pantheism ; but pantheism as the 
Initiates understand it, and not as it is misrepresented by 
the unenlightened theologian, is the truth, the only truth; 
while all the stupendous edifice of dogma, erected in ages of 
spiritual darkness is a monument of superstition and 
ignorance that at the first ray of spiritual illumination must 
crumble into the dust. The truth itself, the knowledge of 
the one and all of the divine soul and spirit within us shall 
abide for ever and aye! — "The Mystery of the Ages." 

In Kees' Cyclopedia we find: "Orus or Huros (tliey are 
the same), a famous deity of Egypt, which as well as Osiris, 
was an emblem (symbol) of the sun." Macrobius, who in- 
forms us why the Greeks gave Horus the name of Apollo, 
says: "In the mysteries (Saturn, lib. I) they discover us 
a secret which ought to be inviolable, that the sun arrived at 
the upper hemisphere, is called Apollo." Hence we may 
infer, that this emblematical deity was no other than the 
star of day, passing through the signs of summer. As 
Apollo among the Greeks was called the Horus of the 
Egyptians, as to his skill both in medicine and divinations, 
he was regarded as the same person, and called by the 
ancients Horus-Apollo (Orus was more particularly Osiris 
in his second state, and represented by the Egyptians as a 
child). The legend of Horus has been thus explained. The 
wind Thamsin made great ravages in Egypt in the spring, 
by raising whirlwinds of burning sands, which suffocated 
travellers, darkened the air, and covered the face of the sun, 
so as to leave the earth in perfect obscurity. This circum- 
stance represented the death of Osiris, and the reign of 
Typhon. When the sun approaches the sign of the lion, he 
changed the state of the atmosphere, dispersed these tem- 
pests, and restored the northern winds, which drove before 
them the malignant vapors, and preserved in Egypt coolness 
and salubrity under a burning sun. This was the triumph 



70 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

of Horus over Typhon, and his glorious reign. As natural 
philosophers had acknowledged the influence of the moon 
over the state of the atmosphere, they united her with this 
god to drive away the usurper from the throne. The people 
considered Osiris as the father of time, might bestow the 
name of his son on Horus, who reigned three months in the 
year. 

The reasons which the inhabitants of northern climes had 
for lamenting the absence of the sun when in the southern 
hemisphere, is beautifully portrayed by Dupuis: 

"We have, in the explanations of the labors of Hercules, 
considered the sun principally as the potent star, the de- 
pository of all the energies of nature, who creates and 
measures time by his march through the heavens, and who, 
taking his departure from the summer solstice or the most 
elevated point of his route, runs over the course of the 
twelve signs in which the celestial bodies move; and with 
them the different periods or revolutions of the stars, under 
the name of Osiris or of Bacchus, we shall see the benefi- 
cent star, who, by his heat, in spring, calls forth all the 
powers of generation ; who governs the growth of plants and 
trees; who ripens the fruits, and who dispenses to all seeds 
that active sap which is the soul of vegetation, and is the 
true character of the Egyptian Osiris and the Greek 
Bacchus. It is above all in springtime that this humid 
generator develops itself, and circulates in all the rising 
productions; and it is this sun, by its heat, that impels its 
movements and gives it fertility. 

"We may distinguish two points in the heavens which 
limit the duration of the creative action of the sun, and 
these two points are those where the night and the day are 
of equal length. All the grand work of vegetation, in a 
great part of the northern climates, appears to be comprised 
between these two limits, and its progressive march is found 
to be in proportion to that of light and heat. Scarcely has 
the sun, in his annual route, attained one of these points, 
than an active and prolific force appears to emanate from 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 7 1 

his rays, and to communicate movement and life to all sub- 
lunary bodies, which he brings to light by a new organiza- 
tion. It is then that the resurrection of the great God takes 
place, and, with his, that of all nature. Having arrived at 
the opposite point, that power seems to abandon him, and 
nature becomes sensible of his weakness. It is Atys, whose 
mutilation Cybele deplored. It is Adonis, wounded in 
virile parts, of which Venus regretted the loss; it is Osiris, 
precipitated in the tomb by Typhon, and whose organs of 
generation the disconsolate Isis never found." Thus in the 
outer, or in the symbolism of the sun, but within the inner, 
is the mystery of the Initiates. 

The similarity between the ancient Egyptian and the 
subsequent Christian symbolism is undeniable. 

Esoterically understood, these are eternal realities; but 
their exoteric acceptation is a thing of the past and has no 
virtue. Pichte says : ''Men are not saved by the historical, 
but by the metaphysical. 

Isis may be called Mary; Horus, Christ, but the idea 
underlying these names is exactly the same. Jesus and the 
apostles no doubt are historical personages; and Jesus, in 
as far as he was the Christ, is the manifestation of God on 
earth, the Divine Being, very God and very man, not only 
to be adored, but to be followed. The death of Jesus is the 
mystic spiritual death by which all are saved ; but only those 
who live the Christ-life can have part in this salvation. 

"The Christ was the Good Shepherd, so was Horus; 
Christ is the Lamb of God, so was Horus; Christ is the 
Bread of Life, so was Horus; Christ is Fan-bearer, so was 
Horus. Christ is the Door of Life. Horus was the path by 
which the dead travel out of the sepulchre, he is the god 
whose name is written as the road," etc. (See Gerald Mas- 
sey, "Natural Genesis." 

"What picture more effectual to render man sorrowful 
than that of the earth when, by the absence of the sun, she 
finds herself deprived of her attire, of her verdure, of her 
foliage, and when she offers to our regard only the wreck of 



72 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

plants, dried up or turned to putrefaction, of naked trunks, 
of arid lands without culture, or covered with snow; of 
rivers overflowed in the fields, or chained in their bed by the 
ice, or of violent winds that Overturn everything. Y/liat has 
become of that happy temperature which the earth enjoyed 
in the spring and during the summer? that harmony of the 
elements, which was in accord with, that of the heavens? 
that richness, that beauty of our fields loaded with grain 
and fruits, or enamelled with flowers whose odor perfumed 
the air, and whose variegated colors presented a spectacle 
so ravishing? All has disappeared, and the happiness of 
man has departed with the God, who, by his presence, em- 
bellished our climes ; his retreat has plunged the earth into 
mourning from which nothing but his return can free her. 

"He was then the creator of all these benefits, since we 
are deprived of them by his departure, he was the soul of 
vegetation, since it languished and ceased as soon as he 
quitted us. YYhat will be the term of his flight and of his 
descent into other regions ? Is he going to replunge nature 
into the eternal shade of chaos, from whence his presence 
had drawn it ? 

"Such were the inquietudes of these ancient people, who, 
seeing the sun retiring from their climate, feared that it 
might one day happen that he would abandon them alto- 
gether; from thence arose the feasts of Hope, celebrated at 
the winter solstice, when they saw this star check his move- 
ment, and change his route to return towards them. But if 
the hope of his approach was so sensibly felt, what joy 
would not be experienced when the sun, already remounted 
towards the middle of heaven, had chased before him the 
darkness which had encroached upon the light and usurped 
a part of its empire. Then the equilibrium of the day and 
the night is re-established, and with it the order of nature. 
A new order of things as beautiful as the first recommences, 
and the earth rendered fruitful by the heat of the sun, who 
had renewed the vigor of youth, embellishes herself under 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 73 

the rays of the lord."* 

Isis, or the Civil Year. 

The figure of the man, who rules (apparently) everything 
on earth, had been thought the most proper emblem to rep- 
resent the sun, which enlivens all nature; and when the 
Egyptians wanted a characteristic of the production of the 
earth, they naturally selected the other sex. The changes 
of nature, the succession of seasons, and the several pro- 
ductions of the earth, which were the subject of common 
thanksgiving, were easily expressed by the several different 
dresses given the woman, (a) 

a. Osiris is the type of the active, generating and benefi- 
cent force of nature and the elements ; Isis, on the contrary, 
is the passive or receiving force, the power of conceiving 
and bringing forth into life in the sublunary world. Osiris 
was particularly adored in the sun, whose rays vivify and 
impart new warmth to the earth, and who on his annual 
return in the spring, appears to create new all organic 
bodies. Isis was the earth or sublunary nature, in general ; 
or, in a more confined sense, the soil of Egypt inundated 
by the Nile, the principle of all fecundity, the Goddess of 
generation and production. United to one another, Osiris 
and Isis typify the universal being, the soul of nature, the 
pantheus of the orphic verse. 

The Egyptians solemnized, at the new moon Phamenoth 
(March) the entrance of Osiris into the moon, which planet 
it was believed to fecundate that it in turn might fecundate 
the earth or Isis. 

When the sacrifice was intended to be made in the day, 
Isis was dressed in white, but if in the night, she was dressed 
in black. They put a sickle in her hand to denote the time 
of harvest. When the purpose of a feast was to remind the 
people of the security afforded by their dwellings, Isis was 
crowned with small towers. To imitate the winter neu- 
monia, the head of Isis was covered with little fillets and 



*Abrege de l'Origine de tous les Cultes, p. 142. 



74 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

with skins sewed together; sometimes with feathers ranged 
one over the other, or with small shells neatly set by each 
other. There were at times on the head of Isis a craw-fish 
or crab, sometimes the horns of a wild goat, according as 
they had a mind to signify either the entering of the sun 
into the sign Cancer, or the feast that was solemnized at his 
entering into that of Capricorn. In Egypt, where the in- 
habitants could with certainty judge of the product of the 
year by the state of the river, they proclaimed a plentiful 
crop by surrounding Isis with a multitude of breasts ; on the 
contrary, when the presage of fertility was not favorable, 
they exposed an Isis with a single breast; thereby to warn 
the people to make amends for the smallness of the harvest 
by the culture of vegetables, or by some other industry. All 
of these changes therefore had an important meaning for 
the people, and Isis, or rather, the dress of Isis was changed 
according to the meaning or warning she was to give to the 
people. 

The Egyptians worshipped God as woman (divine soul), 
under the name of Isis. Herewith is an extract from 
Pleytes' translation of the Turin Papyrus, "the Imperish- 
able." 

"The self-born, maker of heaven, earth, waters, life, fire, 
gods, mankind, animals, cattle, reptiles, fishes, kings, all 
god, the seasons ; whose way I know not, for I know not the 
path of the gods. Behold Isis in female form! She em- 
braces myriad gods, she judges myriad spirits. She is 
not unknown neither in heaven nor on earth, even as the 
sun. She makes the divine on earth, and names herself in 
her heart, according to her own will, the venerable god- 
dess." 

Isis means light. Light is life. See St. John, chapter 1, 
verse 4: "In him was life; and the life was the light of 
men." Isis is the equivalent of Iesus, I-Esus, spirit-soul. 
The spirit is "I" and the soul is "Esus" (Isis), that is 
"Icsus" is the spirit-soul, which forms the eternal "cross" 
resulting in the manifestation known as the body, it being 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. * 75 

the expression of the "Christ" or inner phenomenal ac- 
tivity of this spirit-soul. Iesns stands as the symbol of the 
spiritual power existant in man. He is not an embodied 
person, but rather a principle in every person. He "comes 
to save," that is, he enfolds the organism to unfold it. — The 
Art of Alchemy, Adiramled. 

Next to Osiris, or the symbol of the sun and God, the 
Egyptians had no figure that appeared more frequently in 
their assemblies than Isis, the symbol of earth, the moon 
and the holy mother. 

It is true that gradually the real meaning was lost to the 
masses, but this was no one's fault but their own, as it is in 
the present day the fault of the moderns in having lost the 
true meaning of Mary, the mother of Jesus ; although our 
people, like the ancient masses, would condemn us for say- 
ing so. Says a writer: "It was formerly the general cus- 
tom to make sacrifices and public prayers upon eminent 
places, and more especially in groves to shelter the people 
from the heat of the sun. "When the Isis which proclaimed 
the feasts, and whose figures were one of the finest parts of 
the ceremonies, was once become the object of it and had 
been looked upon as the dispenser (rather than the symbol 
of it only) of the gods of the earth, of which she still bore 
the marks; her several representations, which only fore- 
boded abundance and joy, becoming most agreeable to the 
people, always eager and credulous, the false sense at- 
tributed to these figures made them pass for the surest 
means of obtaining plentiful harvests. These images thus 
became to be worshipped with solemnity and were placed in 
the finest woods. Crowds of people flocked to the religious 
feasts of the lovely queen who loaded them with blessings. 
The coolness and beauty of the place where she was wor- 
shipped, had no less an influence than the attire of the god- 
dess, and instead of calling her the queen of heaven, they 
often styled her the "Queen of the Groves." 

She also became the queen of the herds ; Asteroth, the 



7& MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

great fish, or queen of fishes, Adirdagal, or the queen of 
Amalcta Appherudoth. 

The Greeks softened the sound of these words, and gave 
them the infection and turn of their own language. The 
queen of herds became Astarte; that of the fishes became 
Atergatis ; and the mother of corn became the Aphrodite of 
the Syprians and the Greeks. The name Appherudoth, the 
mother of harvests, changed into that of Aphrodite; this 
word, to the Greeks, signified the froth of the sea. They 
thereupon built the legend of the goddess engendered of the 
froth of the sea, and suddenly springing out of his bosom of 
the watery main. 

They represented the Amalcta Aphrodite, the queen of 
harvest, holding with her left hand a long goat's horn, out 
of which they made ears of corn, vegetables, and fruits to 
spring. She had a sickle or some other attribute in her right 
hand ; and thus they united the mark of the opening of the 
harvest, together with the horn of the wild goat, which signi- 
fied anciently the end of all harvests, and the beginning of 
winter. 

The common people, the masses, have at all times, even in 
the present so-called enlightened age, been fond of quibbles, 
equivocations, and legends. If the change of figure has 
often made several gods out of one and the same symbol di- 
versified, a simple variety of names, even the difference of 
pronunciation, has more often produced a like multiplicity, 
this we see in our own modern religious creeds although 
our people will deny that they have anything but a very 
simple religious belief. The Isis mistaken for the queen of 
heaven, or for the moon, was called Echet, Hecate, or 
Achate, the only, the excellent (inter ignes luna minores). 
Among some of the people of Syria, the same symbol, by a 
slight change of name, was called Achot, the sister. The 
very same whom they had already made the wife of Jehov, 
or of the sun, or of Jupiter — for these are still but one — 
became also his sister. 

This same Egyptian Isis, or Aehor, afterwards became 



OB EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 77 

the daughter of Jupiter, and then the mother of all the 
Gods. And all this came from the diversity of the attri- 
butes and names given to one and the same symbol. 

This same Diana was sometimes a terrestial deity, some- 
times the moon, and sometimes even the queen of hell. By 
her first institution she had a relation to the earth, and 
marked out her productions. The false interpretation was 
given to the crescent and the full moon which she bore over 
her head to proclaim the feasts, caused her to be taken for 
the moon; and at last the time during which she remains 
invisible, that was, between the last phases and the return 
of the new, she was gone to the abode of Ades, the invisible, 
to the empire of the dead or hell. 

The ancient proclamation of the new phases, which was 
made with a loud voice, to proclaim the beginning of the 
neomenia, insensibly degenerated into loud shrieks, which 
they gave out of mere superstition and custom at the en- 
trance of cross streets. They saluted the goddess of the 
dead at her coming out of the horrid mansion. The music 
and the notions agreed with and suited each other. 

All the ancient antiquity, after it had confounded the 
symbol of the new moon and of the feasts relating to the 
several seasons of the year with the stars that regulates 
society by its phases, ascribed to the moon a universal power 
over all the productions of the earth, and generally over all 
the operations of men. They likewise believed that she was 
perfectly well acquainted with future things, and that she 
never appeared without foreboding by certain marks, what 
was to befall husbandry, families, and kingdoms. People 
of this day have not shaken off this belief in the least as 
notice the prayers to the Virgin; but behind or within all 
these ancient and modern beliefs, which are founded upon 
symbolism as ancient as the world is old, there is a mystery, 
the foundation of which rests upon the mother of humanity, 
the divine feminine side of God, the father of all mankind. 

A similar respect or worship was paid to the Neomenia or 
new moon, by the Hebrews. Dr. Clark, in his history of the 



78 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

ancient Israelites, tells us, that: "As the moon regulates 
the months, so does the sun the year. The division which 
we make of the year into twelve months has no relation to 
the motion of the moon. But it was not so with the Hebrews : 
their months are lunar, and their name sufficiently shows 
this. They call them Jachin, which comes from Jarac, 
which signifies the moon, 

"The moment in which the conjunction between the sun 
and moon is made can only be known by astronomical cal- 
culation, because she does not then appear; and as the 
Hebrews were little skilled in this science, they began their 
months at the first phase, or appearance of the moon, which 
required no learning to discover. This was an affair in 
which the great Sanhedrin were concerned, and the dif- 
ferent phases of the moon were painted upon the hall in 
which they assembled.* It belonged to them to choose men 
of the strictest probity, whom they sent to the tops of the 
neighboring mountains, and who no sooner perceived the 
new moon, but they came with all speed, even on the Sab- 
bath Day itself, to acquaint the Sanhedrin with it. It was 
the business of that council to ascertain whether the moon 
had appeared, and to declare it; which was done by pro- 
nouncing the words, the feast of the new moon, the feast of 
the new moon, and all the people were informed of it by the 
sound of trumpets. To which ceremony David alludes, 
when he says, 'Blow up the trumpets in the new moon, in 
the time appointed, on our solemn feast day.' " 

From this also comes the Masonic pillar Jachin, which 
represented Isis, the mother side, the figure of whom was 



*There is thus very little difference between the Hebrews 
and the Egyptians. The Hebrews had their painting on the 
walls while the Egyptians had their symbol of Isis. There 
is this much in favor of the Egyptians, that their knowledge 
was so vast that the moderns could make no additions to it, 
while the Hebrews worked in total ignorance. Otherwise 
they have their symbols and feasts, 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 79 

exhibited at each neomebia, and which is derived from 
Jachin, the name given by the Hebrews to their months. 
Thus all symbolism, of all religions or systems, really had a 
common parent. 

Argus. 

Juno, provoked at the conduct of her husband, took from 
him fair Isis, and having turned her into a heifer, com- 
mitted her to the vigilance of Argus, who had a hundred 
eyes, some of which were awake, while the rest slept. But 
Mercury by his songs lulled all the eyes of the guardian 
asleep, and carried off Isis. The origin of this legend of 
Isis is : 

Weaving was famous at Athens, in the island of Amorgos, 
and in Colchis, as well as in Egypt. Isis, the symbol of 
feasts, when she proclaimed the neomeniae, and other 
solemnities of the winter and the spring, was attended by a 
Horus fit to characterize the kind of work which was to last 
for six months together. This figure was covered all over 
with eyes, to mark out the peculiar kind of work which is 
done by night; and it was because this Horus intimated the 
necessity of watching to forward the making of cloth, that 
he was called argus, which means weavers' work. The Isis, 
after having quitted the horns of the wild goat, whereby she 
denotes the winter, assumed during the whole spring those 
of a heifer, because it is properly the passing of the sun, 
under the sign of the bull, that constitutes in the temperate 
zone the true beauty of that delightful season. The vernal 
Isis, the handsome heifer, thus remained several months to- 
gether under the eyes of Argus, or by the side of the open- 
eyed Horus, till the latter was removed and the heifer 
carried away by Mercury; that is, until the nightly works, 
spinning and making of cloth, were over, by the rising of 
the dog-star or Anubis. The people, as usual, having lost 
the meaning of these natural phenomenas, simply remem- 
bered the legend of the symbolism, or of Isis being changed 
into a heifer, of her guardian Argus, and of the notable 
exploit of Mercury, who on this account was surnamed 



80 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

Argiphontes, the murderer of Argus. We find in Piarius, 
that the Egyptians gave also the name of Argus to the pea- 
cock that was by the side of Juno or Isis; and in the 
mythologists, that Juno, after the death of Argus, took the 
eyes he had about him, and therewith embellished the tail of 
a bird that was consecrated to her. This peacock placed 
near Isis, is only an attribute to denote the beginning of the 
nightly works, by an agreeable imitation either of the starry 
heaven, or of the multitude of eyes kept incessantly open. 

Circe. 

The same Isis, carried into Italy with her several attri- 
butes, gave birth to the legend of a different pattern. There 
she became the sorceress Circe, who with her wand turned 
men to lions, serpents, birds, swine, and other things. The 
mythologists thus took her as an emblem, or symbol, of 
voluptuousness, that brought men down to the condition of 
beasts. Ciree is no other than the Egyptian Isis, who some- 
times with a measure of the Nile sometimes with a weaver's 
beam, a distaff, or a lance, always appeared with some dis- 
tinction in the public proclamations. She was always ac- 
companied with the figures of Horus and others, that varied 
from month to month, and from day to day, according to 
the signs of the zodiac. She was the principal part of the 
enigma, to which all other enigmatic emblems were sub- 
ordinate. She was everywhere to be met with, and had 
always by her side and under her wand, sometimes a man 
with a dog's head, sometimes a lion, with a serpent or a 
tortoise, sometimes a whole child, at another time a child's 
head upon the body of a serpent, and successively the ani- 
mals of the zodiac, and such others as denoted the return of 
the different rural works. 

Isis was really not called Circe on any other account but 
that of the circ, or solar circle she commonly wore over her 
head. That circle was the emblem of the Supreme Being, of 
whom Isis proclaimed the several feasts. But why was this 
sun called circ, the enigma ? It was because God could not 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 8 1 

be painted, and a disc was the enigma of God. It was the 
enigma par excellence, the circ. The place in Italy, to 
which this Isis with her circle over her head was brought 
and honored of old, is still called Monte Circello. To pro- 
claim certain feasts or sacrifices, that were celebrated per- 
haps in the evening, at the rising of the new moon, or in the 
morning at the rising of some star, or of the planet Venus, 
they put over the head of Isis, instead of the disc of the sun, 
that of a star, or of the known planet, a crescent, or a full 
moon. The several foliages she bore in her hand, or over 
her head near the figure of the moon or of some other planet, 
made the people say that the properties of these planets 
were admirable; that it was from a knowledge of their 
virtues that Circe was able to make both heaven and earth 
submit to her power. The figure seemed to imitate this and 
the people gradually became to believe it. This afterwards 
became the privilege of common witches ; and the people are 
still persuaded that the sorceresses at his pleasure dispose 
of heat, cold, hail, and all nature. This figure of Circe, 
which ignorance from an enigma or popular ensign had 
converted into a witch that turns men into several animals 
and has the power of displacing the stars, relates to the 
enigmatic attributes of Isis, which were a sun, the moon, 
some stars, certain plants, and animals very often a mon- 
strous kind. The rest of the legend, by its conformity with 
this interpretation, completes the demonstration of its exact- 
ness. Circe, or Isis, was so far really the proclamation of 
the year, that she put on such clothes and dresses as were 
agreeable to the four seasons. To announce the beginning 
of spring, that overspreads and enamels the earth with 
flowers and verdure, she wore carpets of different colors. 
To denote the beginning of summer, which nourishes us, she 
bore in her hand a basket and a loaf; to proclaim the 
autumn, she bore a cup, and at the begging of winter she 
bore a chafing-dish, or a stove with its foot. These four 
figures gave birth to the fable mentioned by Homer (Octyss) 
that Circe had four maids, one of which spread the carpets 



83 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

of several colors to receive the guests, the second prepared 
the table and put large baskets upon it, the third presented 
the cups, and the fourth kept up the fire on the hearth. 

The Ceres of Sicily and Eleusis is no other than the 
Egyptian Isis, brought into those places by the Phenician 
merchants, who made themselves rich by transporting the 
corn of Lower Egypt into the places whither the scarcity of 
provisions drew them, and generally on the different coasts 
of the Mediterranean, where they had offices and establish- 
ments. The ceremonial of the rural feasts had in their 
hands taken a turn somewhat. The mother of the harvest 
there lamented her daughter, instead of bewailing her hus- 
band, as the Egyptian ritual would have it. 

In the feasts of Ceres, men carried to an excess the forms 
of the gestures and situations, the scrupulous recitals of the 
set forms of prayers, the length of the vigils, the outward 
purity, abstinence, the forbearance of all pleasures, and the 
shunning of a manner of distraction ; the whole of their re- 
ligion was gradually reduced to these outward practices. 
Those who observed them no longer knew any but an arti- 
ficial devotion, or the skeleton of the ancient religion. But 
the unprejudiced student will easily see the power these re- 
ligions must have had when in their purity and the grand 
intention of the first founders of the forms which expressed 
the inner truths. 

Concerning these feasts, an author states: "A long de- 
scription of all the purifications and other ceremonies that 
filled up the first of the nine days of devotion consecrated to 
Ceres would tire my readers, and is no part of my plan, 
which chiefly aims at obtaining the origin of these establish- 
ments. It will be the same with the long procession formerly 
made from Athens to Eleusis, and with the several marches 
peculiar to each of the nine days. The Greeks had built 
the particulars of this minute ceremonial upon the ad- 
ventures that composed the wonderful story of the migra- 
tion of Ceres into their country. 

''What was carried on in the feasts of Ceres at Eleusis, is 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 83 

the same that was carried on in the feasts of Isis. Let us, 
therefore, pass on to the explication of the autopsia, or the 
manifestation of truth, which was in a manner the last act 
of this representation, and was the whole purport of these 
festive mysteries. After a horrid darkness, lightnings,, 
thunder claps, and an imitation of what is most shocking in 
nature and which can test men, the serenity which at last 
succeeded, discovered four personages magnificently 
dressed, and whose habits were all mysterious. 

"The most brilliant of all, and who was especially called 
the Hierophant, or the expounder of the sacred things, was 
dressed so as to represent the being that governs the uni- 
verse. The second was the flambeau bearer, and had rela- 
tion to the sun. The third, who was called the adorer, and 
who kept near an altar, represented the moon. The fourth 
was called the Messenger of the Gods, or Mercury, which 
corresponds to the Egyptian Anubis, with his dog's head 
and measure of the Nile, accompanied by two serpents, and 
is nothing but the wholesome advice which the dog-star 
wisely gave to men, to make off, at the increase of ths 
waters, and thereby secure their subsistence. 

"Nothing could be better contrived than these magnificent 
ceremonies whereby the Egyptians incessantly recalled to 
the minds of the masses the belief of the first men concern- 
ing the judgment of God, and the hopes which are to quiet 
the minds of the just at the approach of death. 

"What an indestructible tradition attended with constant 
practices had been able to preserve of the ancient doctrine, 
proved at last so very opposite to the popular notions, of 
the masses, that the priests thought themselves under the 
necessity of using much circumspection, and of having re- 
course not only to the trial of their disciples, but also to the 
oath of secrecy. 

Menes, or Moses and the Establishment of the Laws., 

"The rural works not being resumed in Egypt till after 
the Nile had quitted the plain, the Egyptians for this reason 



84 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

gave the public sign of husbandry the name of Moses, or 
Museus, which means: "Saved from the waters;" and on 
the same account the moons during which Horus Apollo, ojr 
husbandry, continued his exercises, went also by the same 
name. 

"About the end of autumn, the inhabitants being freed 
from the works of the field, manufactured in their night- 
work, the line, thread, and cloth, which were some of their 
chief riches. The sign which was the publication of it took 
then the name of Linus, which signifies watching, the sitting 
up in the night. The star that lights the night has on this 
account retained the same name, and so has the matter itself 
that was manufactured during those watchings. 

"The customs they had of publishing the several regula- 
tions concerning the polity, by the several postures of the 
son of Osiris, caused him to be commonly called Menes, that 
is, the ruler of the people. The Egyptians, from this title, 
took it into their beliefs that Menes had been their legislator, 
the author of their polity, the orderer of their year, the 
founder of their laws. For this reason they put this im- 
aginary founder at the head of all the lists of the kings of 
their several provinces 

' ' The name of Moses, or Museus, was very properly given 
to the public sign of the revival of husbandry. This word, 
which signified the drying up, made part of the calendar ; it 
was the summary and the substance of a statute of polity. 
It was every year in the mouth of the people, after the re- 
entering of the river within its banks. It was not then a 
man's name. But if Menes and Museus are but one and the 
same thing, as they are, what then becomes of the first king 
of Egypt, the foundation of such history?" 

Menes was called the son of the star of the day, because 
husbandry can do nothing without the sun. Again, it was 
called Museus, because in Egypt, whence this set form came, 
husbandry did not resume its operations until after the re- 
turning of the waters. In short, it is surnamed Menes 
("Harken thou, Menes Museus, son of the star of day") 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 8$ 

in the same set form, that is, the rule of the people. 

Judging from effects rather than from assumed causes, 
may we not believe with the "Fire Philosophers" of the 
middle ages, that the soul is like its source — the central sun 
of being — in its nature and essence pure, unalloyed, 
spiritual light? 

That it is the invisible and infinitely sublimated spirit of 
fire — nor the gross visible element that can be seen, felt, and 
apprehended by the senses — but that wonderful innermost 
light, which, whilst it reveals and proves all things in its 
own manifestation, is itself invisible, unknown, and un- 
comprehended. 

It is this essential, innermost and divine principle of soul 
which survives all changes, which is neither subject to decay 
nor disintegration ; which is the spark derived from deity— 
the Alpha and Omega of being — the link which unites the 
creature to the Creator. 

Encompassing this divine essence of soul, and clothing it 
as a spiritual body, is the subtle and refined element which, 
in its effects, is force ; in its action, through organic bodies, 
is life; and in its a^-pervading influence throughout the 
realms of space, is vaguely termed magnetism or vital elixir. 

It is this element which is recognized throughout the uni- 
verse, by the apparent duality of its modes, called attraction 
and repulsion, or centrifugal and centripetal force. 

Man's physical frame, with its nervous and arterial 
systems and its centers of force, is unquestionably the most 
complicated mass of mechanism, and the most perfect, ever 
created, and is moved by a dual vital power within, that 
mere human intelligence can never comprehend. He who 
would understand it aright must be illuminated by the same 
celestial sun of suns which is its original source. 

The Rosicrucians, who are the successors to the Essenian 
Order, of whom so much was said in the fifteenth and six- 
teenth century, but of whom so very little was ever known to 
the outside world, maintained that the last analysis of the 
supreme being would fail to discover any other existence 



86 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

than that of a central spiritual sun — an infinite, eternal, un- 
created and incomprehensible one alone, whose attributes 
were heat and light, whose manifestation was the universe, 
revealed by light, energized into form, suns, systems, worlds, 
men and things, by that spiritual heat whose last gross ex- 
ternal exhibition is fire. 

"If the above abstractions are caught by the thinker, it 
will appear no wonder that the ancient people considered 
that they saw God, that is with all their innermost possi- 
bility of thought — in fire — which fire is not our vulgar, 
gross fire, neither is it even the purest material or electric 
fire, which has still something of the base, bright light of the 
world about it ; but it is an occult, mysterious, supernatural 
fire — not magnetic — and yet a real, sensible mind. It is the 
inner . light, the God, containing all things, the soul of 
things, into whose inexpressibly intense, all-consuming, all- 
creating, divine, though fiery essence, all the worlds in suc- 
cession will fall ; back into whose arms of immortal light on 
the other side, as again receiving them, the worlds driven off 
into space and being heertofore, by the divine energy will 
again rush back to him. 

' ' The hollow world, in which that essence of things called 
fire, plays, in its escape in violent agitation — to us combus- 
tion — is deep down within us, deep sunken inside of the 
time stages of which we are, in the flesh, rings of being, sub- 
sidences of spirit. 

"Narrowly considered, it will be found that all religions 
transcend up into this spiritual fire-floor, on which, so to 
speak, the phases of time are laid. Material fire, which is 
brightness, as the matter upon which it preys is darkness — 
is the shadow of the true spirit light,* which invests itself 
in fire as a mask, in which alone it can act possibly on 
matter. Thus material light being opposite rather than the 
expression of God, the Egyptians — who were acquainted 
with the fire revelations — could not represent God as light — 



*See "The Rosicrucians ; their Teachings." 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 87 

material light. They therefore expressed their idea of deity 
by darkness. Their adoration was paid to darkness, for in 
this they bodied forth the image of the eternal. Though 
fire is an element in which everything inheres, and of which 
it is the life, still it is itself an element existing in a second 
non-terrestrial, non-physical, ethereal fire, in which the first, 
or terrestrial coarse fire, flickers, waves, brandishes, con- 
sumes, destroys. The first is natural material, gross, but 
this familiar element, seen and known in the natural world 
as fire, is contained in a celestial, unparticled, infinitely ex- 
tended medium — which celestial fire is its matrix, and of 
which, in this human body, we know nothing. 

"There are three ascending Hierarchies of beneficient 
angels whose nature is of the purer portion of the celestial 
fire, and these are divided into nine orders. These three- 
fold angelic Hierarchies are : The Teraphim, the Cherubim, 
and Seraphim; also, there is a correspondential realm of 
darkness, divided into nine spheres — the residuum of being, 
peopled with mighty but adverse angels, who boast still of 
the relics of their lost or eclipsed condition, once all light 
and heavenly glory. The elementary region includes the 
earth, man, and his belongings, also the lower creatures. 
This sphere is the flux, subsidence, ashes, of the ethereal fire, 
and man himself is the microcosm or indescribably small 
copy of the macrocosm, or great world. This earth having 
been produced by the contention of light and darkness, has 
denseness in its innumerable heavy concomitants, which 
contain less and less of the original divine light and heat, 
and thicken and solidify, until it is rent apart, torn, disinte- 
grated and distributed into forms, by the still prevalent 
action of the divine element of invisible fire. 

"The inner jewel of light is never absent, even from the 
grossest atom, and though it may take ages to evolve, still 
will this divine light, ever tending to purify, refine, and 
elevate, alchemically convert base things into fire, gross 
matter into ethereal, and the earth itself into a radiant and 
gloriously spiritualized plane. Unseen and unsuspected, 



S3 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

there is a divine ethereal spirit, an eager force, confined as 
in prison, struggling through all solid objects, which are 
imbued with more or less of this sensitive life, as they are 
more or less refined, through the changing purgation of fire. 
Thus all minerals in this spark of light have the rudimen- 
tary possibilities of plants, and growing organisms; plants 
have rudimentary sensibilities, which might in distant ages 
transmute them into locomotive creatures, and all vegeta- 
tion might pass off, into new and independent highways of 
beings, as their original spark of life-light thrills, expands, 
and urges nature forward with more informed force, and 
directed by the unseen angelic ministers of the Great Or- 
iginal Architect. It is with terrestrial fire that the Al- 
chemist breaks asunder the atomic thickness of visible 
nature, which, yielding up its secret destiny, of unlimited 
progress, sinks into the fiery furnace, in its basest propor- 
tions, to arise thrice purified, and forced upwards on the 
pathway of a higher round of the ladder 

"It is with the celestial fire that the Rosicrucian bursts 
asunder the bonds of error and darkness that hold the soul 
in a material prison-house. He becomes the pontifix (bridge 
maker), who conducts the soul across the dark waters of 
ignorance from the realms of the known to the unknown, 
from the gates of matter to the brightest roads of spirit; 
from earthly blackness to celestial light, from the visible 
fires of purgation to the invisible soul-light of eternity." 

These teachings of the Rosicrucians, to the interior sense 
of the profound thinker, have a deeper significance than any 
other theories that have been advanced concerning the won- 
derful phenomena of deity, life and being. Allowing for 
the varied modes of expression which prevail in different 
countries, and at various periods of time, these opinions 
present a very fair, though necessarily condensed abstract, 
of the philosophies of the Cabalists, Gnostics, Pythagoreans, 
Platonists, and many of the most enlightened of the Greeks, 
Romans and the early Christians. 

The celestial fire referred to by the Rosicrucians is the 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 89 

all-pervading element, which, in its action through space, 
is termed the astral light, and in its investiture of the soul 
as a spiritual body, is termed the astral spirit. The inner- 
most of the Rosicrucian celestial fire, like that of the human 
spirit, is the incomprehensible essence of light, not its sub- 
stance, soul. 

The astral spirit in man is not a single original element, 
like the soul, it is a combination of all the imponderables of 
the universe. Its first derivation or original essence is from 
the sun and planetary system. Ether, air, atmosphere, 
earth, with all its freight of organic and inorganic life, com- 
bine to send off emanations which make up the sum of the 
wonderful structure called the astral spirit in man. It is 
a true cosmos of the universe, and upon its exterior form are 
engraved all the sand grains of character, motives, func- 
tions, vices, virtues, hopes, and memories, which the soul has 
gathered up in its progress of growth through the material 
body; hence it is as much a perfect microcosm, of the indi- 
vidual's mind within., as of the visible and invisible universe 
without. Not a deed, word, or thought which has helped to 
make up the sum of a human life! But what is photo- 
graphed upon the spiritual body of man, with as much 
fidelity as the mind of the Creator is written, in starry hiero- 
glyphics upon the glittering skies. It keeps as faithful a 
record, as true a doomsday book, and pronounces as sure a 
judgment upon human life and conduct as ever the Egyp- 
tian Osiris could have done, in his sternest moods of God- 
like justice. This is the judge of the judgment clay who will 
judge us all. It is the god within us. 

"0, all ye gods! Grant me what is greater than all, and 
still better than all, and more beautiful and more exceed- 
ingly precious — grant me immortality and uprightness. — 

Zoroaster. 



Chapter I. 

Every religion is an establishment by man of his relation 
to the infinite existence, which we call God, and of which he 
feels himself a part, and from which relation he obtains the 
guidance for his conduct. And therefore any religion 
which does not establish the relation of man to the infinite 
is not religion but a corruption of religion. And if a re- 
ligion, although establishing a relation of man to God yet 
establishes it by assertions which disagree with reason and 
the knowledge of man so that man cannot believe such as- 
sertions, then such is not religion, but an imitation. If a 
religion does not connect the life of man with the infinite 
existence, then it also is not religion ; and demands of faith 
in propositions from which no definite direction of man's 
action follows, are also not religion, 

'So that the essence of religion was always and is still 
understood by men who are not bereft of the highest human 
capacity, as the establishment by man of his relation to the 
infinite being or beings whose power he feels over himself. 
And however different this relation has been for different 
peoples at different times, it has always determined for man 
his destination in the world, from which naturally followed 
the guidance of his actions alone. A Jew understood his 
relation to the infinite as that of a member of a people 
chosen by God in preference to all other peoples, and who 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. gl 

must therefore keep the covenant concluded between God 
and this people. A Greek understood his relation as that of 
a being dependent upon the representatives of infinity, the 
Gods, and who must therefore do what was pleasing to the 
Gods. A Brahmin understood his relation to the infinite 
Brahma by considering himself a manifestation of this 
Brahma, and that it was his duty to strive to unite with this 
highest being, by the renunciation of life. A Buddhist 
understood and understands his relation to the infinite as 
that of one who, passing from one form into another, in- 
evitably suffers, and that as these sufferings proceed from 
passions and desires, therefore one should strive to destroy 
(change) passions and desires and so pass into Nirvana. 

The ancient Hebrew who believed in the existence of a 
supreme, eternal, almighty being, who created the universe, 
the earth, the animals, man, and all things else, and 
promised protection to his people, if his people obeyed his 
law, — believed in nothing irrational or opposed to his knowl- 
edge, but on the contrary, his faith explained to him many 
things in life which otherwise were inexplicable. 

So also the Hindoo,* who believes that our souls have been 
in animals and that according to our good or bad lives they 
will pass into higher or lower animals, explains to himself 
by this belief much which without it is incomprehensible. 

In the Egyptian and Persian theogony, the direct ac- 
knowledgment of one supreme being corrosponding to the 
sun and its attributes, is as marked as in the Aryan and 
Indian records. The elaborate woof of Grecian and Eoman 
mythology partakes of the same golden threads of belief, 
and whilst ramifying into a complete system of polytheism, 
still refers back to the Indian and Egyptian idea of creation 
springing from one supreme source, and this is a spiritual 



*The Hindoos said of their God: "Heaven is his head; 
the sun and moon are his eyes ; the earth his feet ; space his 
ears; air his breath. He is the soul of the universe. The 
sun of all luminaries. All creation derives light from Him 
alone. The wise call him the supreme light-giving spirit." 



9^ MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

centre of heat or creative energy, and light or creative wis- 
dom. 

In the orphic songs, the one first great cause celebrated 
as Zeus is more completely associated with the Egyptian 
idea of a sun-god, a spirit "without parts or passion, sex 
or nature," than in the theories of later philosophers. 
Orpheus, the sage, to whom the introduction of Egyptian 
theogony into Greece is mainly due, chants thus to the 
supreme being: 

"Zeus is male. Zeus is female. Zeus is the spirit of all 
things. Zeus is the rushing of uncreated fire. Zeus is the 
king; he is the sun and moon. Zeus is the mighty power, 
the demon, the one mighty frame in which this universe re- 
volves. He is fire and water, earth and ether, day and night. 
All things unite in the body of Zeus." 

So too with a true Christian, who believes that God is the 
spiritual Father of all men and that man's highest welfare 
is attained when he recognizes his sonship with God and the 
brotherhood of man. 

But does a true religion exist ? All religions are infinitely 
different and one has no right to call any particular religion 
the true one merely because it corresponds most nearly to 
our tastes. All religions are infinitely different in their 
form, but they are all the same in their fundamental prin- 
ciples. And it is these fundamental principles of all re- 
ligions which represent that true religion which alone to-day 
is natural to all men, and the acceptation of which can alone 
save men from their calamities. Humanity has existed for 
a long period, and just as it has from generation to genera- 
tion elaborated its practical acquisitions, so also it could not 
help elaborating those spiritual principles which have 
formed the basis of its life, and the rules of conduct which 
follow from these principles. That blind men do not see 
them is no proof that they do not exist. 

The principles of this true religion are so natural to men 
that the moment they are communicated, they are accepted 
as something long familiar and self-evident. For us this 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 93 

true religion is Christianity, in those of its principles in 
which it coincides, not with the external forms but wth the 
fundamental principles of Brahmanism, Confucianism, 
Taoism, Judaism, Buddhism, and the ancient Egyptian and 
other religions. In the same way, for those who profess 
Brahmanism, Confucianism, and others, the true religion 
will be the one the fundamental principles of which coincide 
with those of all other great religions. And there principles 
are so very simple that all can comprehend them. 

They assert that there is a God, the source of all; that 
ivithin man there is a particle of this divine element which 
he can either diminish or increase by his mode of life ; that 
to increase this element man must transmute, or change, his 
passions and increase love within himself; and that the 
practical means to attain this is to act with others as one 
wishes to act towards oneself. All these principles are com- 
mon to the ancient mysteries or Egyptian religion, to 
Brahmanism, Judaism, Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism 
and it is the same essence which is recognized as God in 
Christianity, Judaism and even Mohammedanism. 

Act towards others as thou wouldst wish them to act to- 
wards thee; do not revenge thyself against those who do 
evil to you ; but return good for evil ; be abstinent, chaste ; 
not only refrain from killing people or other beings but be 
not even angry against them; keep peace with all." Such 
is the divine essence in all. All this is the product of 
reason, and all this has been preached equally by Buddhist, 
Confucianists, Christians, Taoists, by the Greeks and the 
Egyptian priests. 

Any form of government, from the foundation of the 
world to the present, which did not incorporate religion 
into its statutes, has ever been short lived; and every or- 
ganization that ignored the religious element has at best 
maintained a poor existence, or been destined to speedy 
annihilation. Religion left its foot-prints upon the deserts 
and far-reaching steppes of the old world, and the wide- 
spread prairies and savannahs of the new. It has nestled 



94 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

for a brief period, while hiding from the rages of perse- 
cutors, in the dens and caves of the earth, and has left there 
those touches of beauty, those sublime hieroglyphs, which 
will yet unfold to us more fully its ancient teachings, its 
defects and its beauties, its victories and its defeats. It has 
been the teacher of true art in every age, and its diplomas 
yet may be seen and admired amid the crumbling remains 
of ancient temples, mausoleums, and ruined cities. The 
ancient temples of India, the ruins of Egypt and Greece, 
and the desolations of Judea, all are monuments of the pro- 
digious power of the religious element in man; and speak 
to us in tones of profoundest wisdom. 

That the religious element in man is inherent and not 
acquired, seems to be abundantly proved by the fact that 
this motive power, or sentiment, is equally strong under 
every form of worship* and pervades and controls every 



*No matter what religion a nation may follow, that people 
are sure to believe that their religion is the only true one 
and in as far as they follow the true principiles. it is, to 
tli em selves, the only true one. All people, when wor- 
shipping in truth, that is, when they follow the principles 
of their religion, are tolerant to all other faiths. It is only 
when these beliefs have degraded into mere forms that 
they become intolerant. Says Tolstoy: "The Christian 
Religion is the highest consciousness of man of his relation 
to God to which humanity has attained, ascending from the 
lowest to the highest step of religious consciousness. And 
therefore the Christian religion, and all men professing 
the true Christian religion, knowing that man has attained 
to a certain degree of clearness and height of religious 
consciousness, thanks only to the unceasing progress of man- 
kind from darkness to light, cannot be intolerant. Ac- 
knowledging themselves in possession only of a certain de- 
gree of truth, which continually more and more clarifies 
itself, rising by the common efforts of humanity — the pro- 
fessors of the true Christian religion when meeting beliefs 
new to them and disagreeing with their own, not only re- 
frain from condemning and rejecting such faith, but gladly 
greet, study, re-examine according to them their own belief, 
reject what disagrees with reason, accept what clarifies and 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 95 

kindred and nation under heaven. The most exalted nations 
and the most degraded; the most intellectual and the most 
ignorant individuals, feel and manifest this all pervading 
impusle; the intensity and mode of outward manifestation 
alone being modified and controlled by organization, educa- 
tion and surrounding conditions and not always does educa- 
tion bring about the most humane results. The religious 
feeling that so deeply pervades humanity, has in every age 
been seeking to incarnate itself in new forms of beauty, and 
has ever been seeking to expand itself into a higher life, 
while the manifestation of this life power has ever and 
anon aroused the conservative element in man, and pro- 
duced those scenes of religious diabolism* that have so often 
enshrouded the world in mourning. Every sect has had 
an abundance of martyrs; every church has had its bright 
and shining light ; and all forms of worship have had their 
prophets and apostles, and have presented to the world a 
bright array of worthies, who by their lives and teachings 
have proved themselves and their doctrines worthy of the 



elevates the truth they profess, and are still more confirmed 
in what is common to all faiths." It is thus with all faiths. 
It is only creeds and dogmatism that condemn all but their 
own and their own they know not. 

*It must be remembered what has already been stated. 
It was not the religious feeling or the feeling of sonship 
with God that caused these awful crimes, but rather the 
fact that these deeper and spiritual feelings had been stifled 
in forms, creeds and church. The man who feels and knows 
that he is the son of God will commit no wrong and will not 
interfere with another's belief, it is only when he loses this 
knowledge in the following up of ritualism and churchism 
or creedism that he will try and make others believe as he 
thinks he himself believes. It is not religion that causes 
these crimes but lack of religion and an abundance of 
creeds and ritualism. The ritualist is ever a coward and a 
bigot and condemns all that do not agree with his special 
ritual. 



96 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

divine origin* that they so confidently claim. It is ex- 
tremely doubtful whether any one system of religion can 
claim superiority over the others,t except in the proportion 
that its adherents are morally, intellectually, and more es- 
pecially, spiritually elevated. 

"A degraded sect of believers in Jesus of Nazareth may 
turn the last supper* into a drunken bacchanal, as did the 



*The doctrines or principles of all great religions were 
truly of divine inspiration. At all times, as in the time of 
Christ, when the older religions had fallen into nothing 
short of simply creed and ritualism, there was always some 
one, who through divine initiation, found that Christos 
within himself and through his awakening or consciousness 
that he was really the son of God, found that there was a 
mighty system or essence of truth and taught such a system 
(religion) to all those that would listen. Christ, through 
his training or initiation, found that he ivas in truth the 
Son of God and as such taught, not a new system at all, but 
simply a spiritual system that had been taught ages before 
under another name, and it was later given the name of 
Christianity. It was the old spiritual essence under a new 
name. Thus have been all systems, and the founders, or 
more correct, the re-founders of all religious systems were 
in truth divinely inspired. 

fNo system of religion can claim superiority over the 
others. In its time, or in its foundation, it was always first 
given out by one who had found the Christ within and was 
therefore divinely inspired, and such systems lasted until 
men, through materialism, had lost the key or spiritual part 
of it, when it became necessary, in the nature of things, for 
another one to re-found the same spiritual system under 
another form and another name. 

*This naturally comes from taking this mystery in its 
outer or literal sense. The Lord's Supper, as such, never 
took place. It was not a supper given in honor, or by 
Jesus himself, but represented a distinct phase of the. train- 
ing of an aspirant in both the ancient Egyptian and Chris- 
tian mysteries. When it began to be taken or understood 
in its literal sense, instead of its spiritual, as it was intended 
to be understood, the abuses occurred. 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 97 

Corinthians, while a Mahometan or Pagan sect may be noted 
for their incorruptible probity, and for their Godlike be- 
nevolence and love.t The existence of God, the doctrine of 
future rewards and punishments and the various religious 
dogmas, that have obtained credence in the world, are as 
firmly believed in now as at any former period, although the 
belief in them is manifested in a manner more in -accord- 
ance with the spirit of the age in which we live. In past 
ages heresy was rectified in the flames by the most en- 
lightened nations; to-day, persecutions of that kind are 
compelled to hide such hellish deeds in darkest dungeons 
of the inquisitions and the persecutions are usually in an- 
other form, such as the ruination of character, business, 
peace in family, and a hundred other ways known to those 
who follow the doctrine instead of the spirit of their faith. 
. "But although there is a firmness of belief in religious 
forms as a whole, yet its devotees are becoming more un- 
certain and yielding in their advocacy of the claims of their 
particular sect and peculiar dogmas.* This gradual yield- 
ing of contested points, this giving up of particular forms 



tWhen a so-called Pagan sect lived up to such spiritual 
teachings, they were no longer Pagan sects, but as surely 
Christian or Christie as there are any living at this present 
day. When man, whether he is white, red or black, learns 
and feels that he is the son of God, and when love and 
benevolence become his watchword, then he becomes a 
Christian, no matter to what religion or sect he is supposed 
to belong. Name of religion can make no difference, it is 
the works, or the fruits that count. 

*~While this yielding is certainly commendable, it at the 
same time shows that these adherents are not sure of their 
own religious beliefs and this is but natural when a man 
holds to a form instead of to the spiritual essence of a re- 
ligion. The forms of no single faith are true, these forms 
are always made by man and it is only the spirit that 
should dwell within these forms that can be true. But now, 
as ever, all these know not the spirit but know and follow 
but the form. It is idol worship, pure and simple. 



98 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

of bigotry, necessarily leads to a more fraternal spirit, and 
the result is manifested in union-meetings, and an exchange 
of pulpits between sects formerly noted for their hostility. 

This gradual yielding of favorite forms and dogmas is 
but the forerunner of a still more Catholic spirit among the 
religionists of earth. Probably the most self-exalted sects 
in both Christian and pagan lands, will yet believe and 
teach that "men of all nations who love (not fear) God and 
work righteousness are accepted of Him. ' ' 

This age is most certainly an age of thought; men are be- 
ginning to think for themselves and to inquire into the 
reason and wherefore of those doctrines and form which 
perhaps have nothing but antiquity to commend them. They 
are beginning to learn that no form, no matter what its 
associations may have been, can give man peace, happiness 
or the Christie spirit, but that it is only through love of 
humanity and therefore the finding of the essence of these 
things that can give them that which the heart desires. 
Ancient systems of theology are undergoing a process of 
resuscitation ; antiquarians are delving among the ancient 
ruins, and examining the claims of the ancient sacred books 
and are beginning to learn the spirit, of these mighty teach- 
ings. The Christian world is becoming more tolerant to- 
wards the so-called pagan brotherhood and they are be- 
ginning to understand these grand and sublime teachings, 
and it may yet be that they will be willing to exchange the 
virtues of the Christian system for those inherent in theirs, 
and reject the objectionable features in both. For there 
are such objectionable features in all forms that come to us. 

"Notwithstanding the ameliorated and more humanity 
loving tone of society, the advent of any. new manifestation 
of religious thought is heralded into existence amid priestly 
intolerance,* religious hate, and editorial slang; the pulpit, 



*This must ever be so long as ritualism, churchism and 
priestcraft exists. These are the natural enemies of the 
Individual development or initiation. But neither rituals, 
churchism, nor yet priestcraft have anything to do with 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 99 

the bar and the press vieing with each other in the mani- 
festation of their bigotry and intolerance ; not realizing that 
man is to be carried to the topmost eminences of spiritual 
life, by the successive waves of the ever-swelling ocean of 

true Christianity. This needs neither Church nor priests, 
for true Christianity consists in nothing less than for each 
man to know that he is truly the son of God and that 
through certain modes of life is he able to find the Christ, 
not in the far off heaven, but within his own being. Natur- 
ally all that belongs to ritualism is arrayed against such a 
sublime doctrine for in this Christianity neither ritual, 
Church or priest has any place. 

Christ-ian or Christian signifies corresponding to Christ, 
or resembling Christ, or derived from Christ or in any way 
connected with Christ. And if Christ is nothing but the 
proper name of a certain man, then Christian means simply 
a follower of that man. But Christ is not strictly the name 
of a person ; and true Christianity is therefore not a merely 
personal religion, whatever the Church may be. "Christ 
is an adjective expressing the quality and characteristics of 
the inspired teacher. It comes from the Greek, and in 
Greek it is not a proper name, but an adjective which may 
be applied to merit. Yet it has been so universally applied 
to Jesus that many suppose it to be his proper name, though 
it is simply a title of honor applied to him, which might also 
be applied to others if they were deemed worthy. The word 
does not confine us to Jesus or to the Church. On the con- 
trary, Jesus himself would tell you to go forth in freedom 
and find all the Christ you can in history, and when you 
have found them, give them love and honor, and assist their 
work — to go on the line of duty until you become, if 
possible, a Christ yourself. 

"You understand that Christ is not a personal name, 
although it may be connected with the name of Jesus : and 
hence, the Christian is not necessarily a follower of Jesus, 
unless he shall recognize him as his Christ. That which 
truly constitutes the Christian is the following of heavenhj- 
inspired teaching, or the highest teaching of heaven to 
mortals. 

"The word Christ is a very noble word. There is no 
grander title under heaven by which we can assume our 
proper position and present ourselves before mankind in 
the most dignified and worthy manner," 



IOO MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

thought, that breaks upon the shores of time. Yet the war- 
fare against man's newest, holiest convictions, is not as 
bitter as it formerly was, and more speedily gives place to 
the sober second thought. The upheavings of religious 
thought exceed all former manifestations of the kind, and 
seems to point to the present as an auspicious period for 
the calm interchange on this most important subject. 

"Although the revolution in the theological world is not 
accompanied with the clashings of the warrior's blade and 
the booming of artillery, yet, it is more thorough and far- 
reaching in its influence. Although it may not now, as in 
former times, array nation against nation, and brother 
against brother in deadly conflict ; yet, the questions in dis- 
pute are as directly enunciated and the new ideas pro- 
mulgated are as revolutionary in their character and 
tendency, and will be as marked and enduring in their re- 
sults, as have been the mightiest revolutions of past ages. 
The coming revolutions will probably culminate in a lasting 
or temporary peace, just in the proportion that it covers all 
the points of difference, or deals only with a single idea. 

' ' The spiritualistic movement of the present day contains 
within itself the elements of revolution and change. It 
boldly grapples with the received dogmas of the various 
sects and rejects all that according to its theory have not 
truth for their basis. The facts of spiritualism* are be- 



*There is a great mistake made by the vast majority of 
the followers of spiritualism and that is, that it is supposed 
to have been unknown in ancient clays. If we study the 
history of Julian and the early centuries, we find that all 
these men, initiates in the ancient mysteries, had intercourse 
with the Gods. However, these men only reached that stage 
through a special course of living. Temperance, virtue, 
strict rules of religions abstinence and many facts were re- 
quired in order that the mind and body should be in a state 
of purity and after such a course we find that Libanius, the 
friend of Julian, states that: "He (Julian) lived in a per- 
petual intercourse with the gods and goddesses; that they 
descended upon earth to enjoy the conversation of the 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. IOI 

coming so widespread in their varied manifestations that 
the denial of them is but evidence of intense ignorance of 
the subject, or of dogged dishonesty. The real opponents 
with whom it must grapple fortify themselves by an appeal 
to the Bible. 

The Bible itself has never been allowed to stand upon its 
real merits, (a) but has been studied and interpreted in ac- 
cordance with the commentaries of sectarian leaders, and 
has been foisted upon the Christian world as altogether in- 
spired by God, although the book itself makes no such 
pretence. 

a. All the mistakes made by orthodoxy in respect of 
Biblical interpretation comes of referring statements of 
which the intention is spiritual and mystical, implying 
principles, processes, and states belonging to the soul, to 
persons, events, and things belonging to the body. This has 
been the curse upon Christianity, but is not the fault of the 
misunderstood Christian teachings. 

Even the Hebrew Kaballa and Talmud — especially the 
former — are little else than interpretations of the mystical 
meaning of Scripture, themselves couched in mystical 
language, and no less requiring a key for their explication. 
The Therapeuts and Essenes — an Order to which both Jesus 
and the Baptist belonged — expounded their Scriptures 
allegorically ; as did also Philo and other learned and pious 
Jews the books of Moses. And scholars of the highest repute 
declare the same of the initiated of all lands in regard to 
their own sacred mysteries, the object of the method em- 



favorite hero ; that they generally interrupted his slumbers, 
by touching his hand or hair; that they warned him of 
every impending danger, and conducted him by their in- 
fallible wisdom, in every action of his life ; and that he had 
acquired such an innate knowledge of his heavenly guests, 
as readily to distinguish the voice of Jupiter from that of 
Minerva, and the form of Apollo from the figure of Her- 
cules." It might be well for investigators to follow the 
mode of life of the ancient Initiates and then would modern 
spiritualism be placed on its proper plane. 



102 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

ployed being to save them from profanation and loss 
through being divulged to the ignorant and vulgar. Ac- 
cording to Pausanias, the wisdom of the Greeks had from 
the earliest times been wrapped up in allegories and 
enigmas — a statement fully borne out by the result of recent 
research in regard to their interpretation. Sallust gives a 
detailed account of the reason for the practice. And San- 
chonianthon and Proclus say of the Phoenicians and Egyp- 
tians respectively, that they veiled the great secrets of ex- 
istence under figures and symbols; as also did the ancient 
school of philosophers, variously called Gnostics, Hermetics, 
Neo-Platonists, Alchemists, Eosicrucians, and others, whose 
subject was the perfectionment of man by means of his 
regeneration, and whose language — like that of all crafts — 
was technical, and therein symbolical and unintelligible, 
save to those who possessed the key to it. From all of which 
it surely follows that, were the Bible to be indeed literal and 
historical, it would differ in both manner and kind from all 
other books of its class. 

"The Bible must of necessity play a most important paVt 
in the future history of the religious world. The so-called 
infidel may cast it from him, but it will return and ask for 
examination, and a decision upon its merits. The blind 
devotee — to its literal sense — who has taken it to his heart 
in gross, as he has been taught to believe it, without a 
resort to his judgment, will yet see in it beauties of which 
he never dreamed, and under its influence rise to a more 
just appreciation of man's nature, necessities and destiny." 

The objections made by the agnostic to revelation, 
miracles, divine incarnation, immortality, the reality and 
accessibility of the spiritual world, and other tenets of re- 
ligion, come of ignorance of the true substance of existence, 
and the consequent substitution of matter for that existence. 
The Church, with its literal translation will have to answer 
for much wrongdoing in this respect. 

One object of this w T ork is to call the attention of the 
student to a system of interpretation of the Bible entirely 



OB EGYPTIAN INITIATION. I6J 

different from that which is followed at the present time. 
This work is the result of years of researches in a direction 
traveled by but a few of the students in the theological in- 
stitutions; consequently, the facilities of research are but 
scanty, and there is a demand for works that can be relied 
upon for their truth. 

Most of the authors of the past have gathered up the 
varied and widespread fragments of ancient worship, with- 
out realizing that the various dogmas and forms of worship 
of all nations, ancient and modern, are but the relics and 
dismembered parts of a system of worship that has ever had 
its ramifications throughout the world and few of them 
know that the ancient Egyptian mysteries were but a part 
of the earlier Atlantean mysteries. However, they are not 
to blame for they had only opportunity to study these 
mysteries from the outside as it were, as none of them were 
initiates in these greater mysteries. 

The general mode of treating this question has been as 
though an anatomist had found the bones of an arm, and 
accepted it as the skeleton of a strange animal or a serpent, 
or a skull as the bony structure of an animal of the bulbous 
form. Modern theology has discoursed upon ancient re- 
ligion as would the naturalist on fossil remains, if he should 
treat upon every fragment of bone as the complete skeleton 
of some extinct animal. In the present work will be given 
the inner meaning of these religions as well as the outer 
forms and symbols. All religions now extant have grown 
out of, and are but fragments of a most complete and mag- 
nificent symbol worship, most ancient in its origin, dating 
back to the Lost Atlantis, many thousands of years before 
the annals of time. It must not be understood that I mean 
the worship of symbols, but the worship of the higher 
hierarchies, or beings, or gods, through the form of symbols. 

The Alexandrian library, which was destroyed by the 
Saracens, has been computed to contain more reading 
matter than all the literature of the world now extant ; the 
great bulk consisting of manuscripts not of the symbolic 



104 MYSTERIES OF OSIEIS 

order. The holy books of the Hindoos, too, are very ancient, 
probably alphabetical in their composition. One thing, 
however, we know, viz., that the old Phoenician alphabet, 
the parent of the Greek, Latin, and English, is very ancient. 
The symbolic language, however, carries us much farther 
back, and has been perpetuated amid the conflagration of 
cities and the ruins and empires, simply because it is more 
indestructible in its nature than are parchments, rolls or 
bound volumes. The mad bigots in every age, have at- 
tempted to eradicate all evidence of the older worship by 
destroying their sacred books; but the symbolic language, 
engraved upon their monuments and tombs, buried with 
their dead, perpetuated in every form of architecture, inter- 
woven into every arrangement of society, every phase of 
thought and belief, written in heaven's blue vault, was so 
far beyond the reach of their vandal hands, and so far 
beyond their comprehension, that they passed it by un- 
observed and it remains to us, a glorious memento of ancient 
industry, science and devotion. 

"The modern churches, too, have been busily engaged in 
destroying all the vestiges of our connection with the 
symbolic worship of the earlier ages. During the whole 
Christian era this knowledge has been religiously excluded 
from the seats of learning, or if introduced, it has been mis- 
understood and consequently misrepresented, and in many 
cases, purposely perverted from its original meaning. How- 
ever, we must also bear in mind that in by far the majority 
of cases it was not even understood. 

In our institutions of learning all the ancient mythology 
antecedent to the Greek and Roman, is excluded, or only 
occasionally introduced in some of its most repulsive forms.* 



*The ancient religions have never been taught by either 
the Church or orthodoxy except in its most literal sense, 
such as the worship of idols, the sacrifice of living children 
to the gods, etc. As a fact, such a thing never took place in 
the temples or among the ancient priesthood, for theirs was 
a religion of the utmost purity. As will be proven, the so- 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 105 

The reason of this is obvious, for whenever any of the pagan 
(ancient) doctrines or ceremonies of the Greeks or Romans 
correspond to the Jewish or Christian, the force of the 
coincidence is explained away by the supposition that the 
heathen (?) borrowed them from the Jews or Christians. t 
But when we are enabled to show that the Jewish and Pagan 
(Ancient) are identical, the older system must carry off 
the palm of originality. For this purpose our researches 
necessarily lead us to investigate the older systems of re- 
ligious Avorship, for in religion as in all things else — history 
simply repeats itself in new forms. 

"The honest inquirer will desire to know our object in 
thus running counter tothesupposedsettledconvictions of the 
age, and at this stage of the argument we shall attempt to 
briefly answer the inquiry. We shall lay clown as a proposition 
undeniable and furnishing a firm basis of argument, that a 
knowledge of the truth is at all times desirable as an ab- 
stract affirmation, and absolutely necessary for our har- 
monious development. The exceptions to the rule are the 
cases similar to the treatment of a lunatic, in which you are 
constrained to humor his fancies that you may more easily 
control and benefit him. Other reasons, also, most weighty 



called idols were nothing more than simply personal repre- 
sentations of the active forces, or gods if you will, of the 
being in the invisible, and over this form even the Christian 
Church can say nothing for they, like the ancients, have, or 
teach, their personal God. It is true that in time, orgies 
were committed by the people, but these were neither taught 
nor sanctioned by the priesthood. 

tEvery single form, every single belief, and every single 
dogma of the modern Jewish and Christian Church has 
been borrowed from the ancients, as will be proven in these 
works. There is nothing "new under the sun" holds good 
to the present forms of religions, for all of them are bor- 
rowed, or outright stolen from the ancient religions. 



106 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

and numerous,* have influenced us to pursue this investiga- 
tion. The facts that prove the identity of all religions are 
accumulating; the enemies of revealed religion are becoming 
possessed of them, and are using them with wonderful 
efficiency to subvert the present order of society without 
substituting a better. The infidel, (I use not the word re- 
proachfully, but to designate a class,) and all learned men, 
know that the various systems of religion in the world now, 
have borrowed most, if not all, of their ideas from the 
ancients and have perpetuated their forms and ceremonies. 
In view of this, the infidel argues that modern religion is 
false because of its origin, but lias never yet proved that 
ancient religions were not true. W|b accept most facts in 
the case but deny the conclusions of the infidel, because we 
know them to be incorrect. We admit, that the ancient wor- 
ship, as we have been taught and made to understand it, is 
and was false, but we know that the ancient religions as 
they were, are true. In this age, we are beginning to get 
access to the sacred books and manuscripts of the ancient 
Churches and which are still to be found in the secret 
archives where the aspirant can find them. We begin to 
decipher their hieroglyphs and understand the beauties of 
their philosophy. These sacred books, these hieroglyphics, 
unfold to us the mysteries of their worship and furnish a 
key to unlock the dark (hidden) sayings of our Bible. We 
do not write because we love the Christie love worship less, 
but because we love the ancient more, and are compelled to 
pull down those walls of separation that lead us- to depose 
our fellows because we have been taught to believe that they 



* Among the greatest of these reasons is the fact that, as 
initiates or priests of the ancient religions, we have been 
taught the truth concerning these things and it therefore 
rests upon us to show to the masses, that unlike the theory 
of the unbeliever, there is a sure foundation for modern 
religion and that there has never been any religion but 
what was founded upon the most sublime truths. 



OB EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 1 07 

are under the curse of the Almighty.* We repudiate the 
idea that ignorance is the mother of devotion, and therefore 
watch with intense interest for any newly discovered truths. 
The Bible is the common battlefield of the Christian world ; 
over its mangled remains each party alternately triumphs,* 
or mourns its defeat. All we conceive from the fact is, 
that neither clan, sect, or party, understand its spirit or its 
meaning. The Bible forms the basis of our social and re- 
ligious institutions; contains vast funds of information, and 
rightly understood, advocates the best of morals, and is not 
to be treated with the supercilious contempt so common to 
many; but as it also contains much that is revolting to 
decency and good morals, it becomes us to inquire how far, 
or to what extent it is to be taken in its literal meaning. 

Man must be taught the truth in small doses and there- 
fore God has been necessitated to teach him in accordance 
with his frail condition, and in a way that in his wisdom 
is best adapted to that condition. Therefore in ancient 

*If we, as human beings, in the form of the Divine Him- 
self, are to believe that ancient worship was wrong and that 
the believers of those times are damned, then we must be- 
lieve that God is not God, but an awful image of destruc- 
tion, for if that worship was wrong, why did not our &od 
give to those ancient people a Christ to give them a true 
religion. But it is not so, their religion was as pure and as 
true as ours ever can be and suited both the people and their 
God. 

*A11 this comes, not from the true spirit of either Christi- 
anity or any other religious teachings, but rather from the 
fact that each sect thinks that their teachings are the only 
true ones and because they take these teachings in their 
literal sense instead of understanding the spirit underneath 
them all. All religions are right for the people which hold 
to them, but all are wrong when understood in their literal 
or outer meaning. In fact, all of them are idol worshipping 
forms unless understood. The very fact that men fight each 
other shows that they have neither imbibed the spirit of 
their God nor of their teachings, for had they, then they 
would be like the lowly Nazarene, willing to suffer silently 
for their God. 



108 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

times he spake in parables and dark (hidden) sayings, and 
instructed the people, both Jews and Gentiles, through their 
teachers, in that symbolical and figurative manner that in 
ages past overspread the world. The people have almost 
entirely lost the meaning of this symbolical language, in 
which the mysterious parts of the Bible were written, and 
were it not for the ancient fraternity still existing as in 
those past ages, there would be none to unfold to the people 
the beautiful truth of these mysteries. But God is good, no 
matter what Christian unbelievers may say, and nothing 
that ivas is lost. In treating this subject we shall show that 
this grand system of symbolical religion did universally 
prevail; that the various religions of different nations are 
but fragments of this universal whole; and consequently, 
that in the same proportion that we are enabled to compre- 
hend the original, we shall have the key that will unlock to 
us the mysteries of the various sects, creeds, doctrines, and 
sacred books, that at different times did, and do still prevail 
upon this old earth of ours. 



Chapter II. 

In the beginning: 

The soul is an emanation from deity, and in its original 
essence is all purity, truth, and wisdom, ' ' is an axiom which 
the disembodied learn, when the powers of memory are 
sufficiently awakened to perceive the states of existence 
interior to mortal birth. In the Paradise of purity and love, 
souls spring up like blossoms, in the all Father's garden of 
immortal beauty. It is the tendency of that divine nature, 
whose chief attributes are love and wisdom, heat and light, 
to repeat itself eternally, and mirror forth its own perfec- 
tions in scintillations from itself. These sparks of heavenly 
fire become souls, and as the effect must share in the nature 
of the cause, the fire which warms into life also illuminates 
into light, hence the soul emanations from the divine are all 
love and heat, whilst the illumination of light, which 
streams ever from the great central sun of being, irradiates 
all souls with corresponding beams of light. Born of love, 
which corresponds to divine heat and warmth, and ir- 
radiated with light, which is divine wisdom and truth, the 
first and most powerful soul emanations repeated the action 
of their supreme originator, gave off emanations from their 
own being, some higher, some lower, the highest tending up- 
wards into spiritual essences, the lowest forming particled 
matter. These denser emanations, following out the creative 



I tO MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

law, aggregated into suns, satellites, worlds, and each re- 
peating the story of creation; suns gave birth to systems, 
and every member of a system became a theatre of sub- 
ordinate states of spiritual or material existence." 

Thus do ideas descend into forms, and forms ascend into 
ideas. Thus is the growth, development, and progress of 
creation endless, and thus must spirit originate and ever 
create worlds of matter, for the purposes of its progressive 
unfoldment. 

"Will the mighty march of creation never cease ? Will the 
cable anchored in the heart of the great mystery, deity, 
stretch out forever ? 

"Forever!" shout the blazing suns, leaping on in the 
fiery orbits of their shining life, and trailing in their 
glittering pathway ten thousand satellites and meteoric 
sparks, whirling, flashing in their jeweled crowns, all 
embryonic germs of new, young worlds shall be. 

Earths that have attained to the capacity to support 
organic life, necessarily attract it. Earths demand it. 
Heaven supplies it. From whence? As the earths groan 
for the leadership of superior beings to rule over them, the 
spirits, in their distant Edens hear the whispers of the 
tempting serpent,* the animal principle, the urgent intel- 



*This is the first story of creation, the mystery of the 
serpent, the Eden and the "Fall." it is also the mystery of 
creation and is the only logical solution of the mystery if 
we will believe that God created mankind. It is the Sanscrit 
or Atlantean solution. 

The legend of the Garden of Eden, the temptation and 
fall of man, is very generally accepted by materialistic 
writers as a purely astronomical origin, and to have been 
founded on the astral order alone without any other mean- 
ing. The August constellation of the Virgin, represents a 
woman holding a flower, sprig or fruit in her hand, beckon- 
ing to Bootes or Joseph, the constellation a little to the north 
of the Virgin, but in close proximity to her. This configura- 
tion of the heavenly signs, it is taught, may be as often 
interpreted into the legended relations of Adam and Eye 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. Ill 

leet, whichi appealing to the blest souls in their distant 
Paradise, fill them with indescribable longings for change, 
for broader vistas of knowledge, for mightier powers; they 
would be as the gods, and know good and evil; and in this 
urgent appeal of the earths for man, and this involuntary 
yearning of the spirit for intellectual knowledge, the union 
is effected between the two, and the spirit becomes pre- 
cipitated into the realms of matter to undergo a pilgrimage 
through the probationary states of earth, and only to regain 
its paradise (heaven) again by the fulfillment of that pil- 
grimage. ' ' 

When spirits lived as such, in Paradise (with God) 
emanations from a spiritual deific source, they knew no 
sex, nor reproduced their kind. When they fell (took on 
material form), and the earth, like magnetic tractors drew 
them within the vortex of its grosser element, they became 

as the Virgin Mary and Joseph. The radiance, bloom and 
beauty of the season in which these constellations appear, 
signifies the earthly Eden. The astral woman tempts the 
astral man. She herself is tempted by the serpent, who 
presently appears in the skies as the great dragon. The 
woman gives of the fruit she holds to man, he eats and falls. 
The Cherubim and Seraphim of the skies (the typical signs 
of constellated stars, drive them forth from the Eden of 
Summer into the gloom and famine of Winter. To restore 
the fallen man to a future paradise, a Saviour must be 
found, and this is effected in the birth of the Sun-God, at 
midwinter, and his renovating influence during the suc- 
ceeding spring and summer. 

To accept this legend without allowing for the spiritual 
significance concealed beneath it, is equivalent to the as- 
sumption that the ancients actually worshipped the sun, 
moon and stars as personal gods ; but the ancients never 
enunciated sacred ideas except in allegorical forms of 
speech, and never mapped out the scheme of an allegory 

without a profoundly spiritual meaning veiled by } ' 

"As it is above, so it is below." "On earth as in the 
skies," were the sentences by which the mystics of old were 
accustomed to affirm the universal correspondence between 



112 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

what the earths compelled them to be. In the earlier ages 
of these growing worlds, the conditions of life were rude 
and violent, hence the creatures on them partook of their 
nature. Then they first obtained the nature of sex, and the 
law of generation. To people these earths, man, like the 
other living creatures, must produce his kind. All things 
in matter are male and female; minerals, plants, animals, 
and men. Spirit, the creative energy, is the masculine 
principle that creates ; nature, the passive recipient, is that 
which germinates; hence creation. Man must obey the law; 
hence sex and generation." 

Man lives on many earths before he reaches this. Myriads 
of worlds swarm in space where the soul in rudimental 
states performs its pilgrimages ere he reaches the large and 
shining planet named the Earth, the glorious function of 
which is to confer self -consciousness. At this point only is 
he man ; at every other stage of his vast wild journey he is 
but an embryonic being — a fleeting, temporary shape of 



the harmonies of the natural and spiritual in every depart- 
ment of being. 

To understand how the ancients interpreted these astral 
hieroglyphics into such a system as would explain the fall 
of man, and yet preserve the correspondence between his 
estate on earth and the movements of the heavenly bodies, 
it is necessary to take into consideration the "fall" as 
already explained, where it is shown that the soul originally 
dwelt in a purely spiritual state of existence, but being 
tempted by the craving desire for earthly knowledge, it 
became attracted to this planet — incarnated in the form of 
man and woman — and hence, in reality "the fall" of spirit 
into matter. With all that reverence which finite beings must 
feel when they presume to speculate on infinity, we may 
imagine that the form of the highest spiritual existences 
may admit of no parts or angles, but may be, like the per- 
fection of the spiritual sun, a globe ; but all organic forms 
are sections of the perfect sphere, and man is obviously a 
complex assemblage of lines and circles, uniting in himself 
all the details of mathematical proportion, subordinate to 
the perfection of figure assumed to exist in the spiritual sun. 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 1 I 3 

matter — a creature in which a part, but only a part, of the 
high imprisoned soul shines forth ; a rudimental shape with 
rudamental functions, ever living, dying, sustaining a fleet- 
ing, spiritual existence, as rudimental as the material shape 
from whence it emerged; a butterfly springing up from the 
chrysolitic shell, but ever as it onward rushes, in new births, 
new deaths, new incarnations, anon to die, and live again, 
but still stretch forward, still strive onward, still rush on 
the giddy, dreadful, toilsome, rugged path, until it awakens 
once more — once more to live and be a material shape, a 
thing of dust, a creature of flesh and blood, but now — a 
man. ' ' 

It is from the dim memory that the soul retains, first of its 
original brightness and fall, next of its countless migrations 
through the various undertones of being that antedate its 
appearance on this earth as a man, that the belief in the 
doctrine of the metempsychosis (transmigration of souls 
through the animal kingdom) has arisen. - 

Yet it is a sin against divine truth to believe that the 
exalted soul that has once reached the dignity and upright 
stature of manhood should, or could, retrograde into the 
bodies of creeping things, or crouching animals. 

After the soul's birth into humanity, it acquires self- 
comciousness, knowledge of its own individuality, and 
closing up forever its career of material transformation, 
with the death of the mortal body, it gravitates on to a 
fresh series of existences in purely spiritual (as before its 
birth on earth) realms of being. Here the further purifica- 
tions of the soul commences anew; commences with that 
sublime attribute of self-lcnmvlcdge* which enables even the 
wickedest spirit to enjoy and profit by the change, for 



*The great mystery of the Ancient Initiation was that 
men could, by proper course of life and development, reach 
this self-consciousness in the present existence so that the 
rush onward would not be delayed, this was. the, and is the 
grand mystery of true initiation. 



1 14 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

memory supplies him with lessons which urge him to 
struggle forward into conquest over sin, and prophetic sight 
stimulates him to aspire until he shall attain, by well- 
directed effort, the sublime heights of purity and goodness 
from which he fell, to become a mortal pilgrim. 

The triumphant souls who enter heaven by effort are 
God's ministering angels of power, wisdom, strength, and 
beauty. The dwellers in the primal states of Eden are only 
spirits. The first are God-men — heavenly men — strong and 
mighty powers, thrones, dominions, world-builders, glorious 
hierarchies of sun-bright souls, who nevermore can fall. 
Spirits are but the breath, the spark, the shadow of a God ; 
angels are Gods in perosn. During the various transitional 
states of the soul in passing through the myriads of forms 
and myriads of earths whereon their probations are out- 
wrought, the changes are all effected by a process analogous 
to human death — during the period that subsists ere the 
soul, expelled from one material shape enters another, the 
drifting spirit, still enveloped by the magiietic areal body 
which binds it to the realm of matter, becomes for its short 
term of intermediate spiritual existence an elementary 
spirit. 

The story of the creation was woven into legends of which 
Genesis is one. The same story was interwoven with legends 
of gods and goddesses; the emblems of generation* which 
were necessary to generation, were interspersed with 



*For ages prior to the invention of letters, the pjiallin, or 
organs or generation, had become a most important, because 
most significant, hieroglyphs or symbols of salvation (re- 
generation). Therefore as the saltier or St. Andrew's cross, 
forming an angle of twenty-three degrees, i.e., the angle of 
the ecliptic or the angle formed by the sun in crossing the 
line, became an emblem of salvation, because it ushered in 
the fruitful season ; and the lingam also being an emblem of 
fecundity, they became in some measure blended into one 
idea. In time this gave place to the serpent and the Roman 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. II5 

astronomical signs and descriptions of animals and in the 
end these things became deified as types of the creative 
energy. 

''With the descent of the soul into physical or material 
life, man becomes dual, male and female, with sex as the 
dividing line between them. Then, too, ensues that mys- 
terious transformation of the soul 's faculties which converts 
spiritual love into material passion, intuitional knowledge 
into human reason, boundless perception into dim memory 
and vague prescience, eternal things into temporal, and a 
creature without parts or passions, into one all organs ; and 
swayed by every emotion that ranges from the depths of 
vice to the heights of virtue. 

"So with the soul. To become an angel it must first be a 
man, then a spirit, struggling on through spheres of gradu- 
ated unfoldment* and when all is done, the soul originally 
expelled from its Eden, of innocence and ignorance, through 
desire, will regain it with the strength, wisdom and love 
which alone can constitute it an angel of God. 

"It was this perception of the soul's destiny that the 
ancient's esteemed the generative functions of the divine, 



cross, both of which symbolize the principle of fecundity, the 
course of the sun and in their inner meaning, the re-genera- 
tion of man. According to the ancient theological and 
astronomical science, men were saved by three forces, i.e., 
the warmth produced by the sun as he is crossified or cruci- 
fied at the passover, the generative power of the appropriate 
organs in vegetable life and lastly, by the regenerative 
power of the Phallus, the Sun or the Christ, all of which 
have the same meaning. 

*This is one of the greater Egyptian mysteries. It is one 
little understood but one of the most sublime of them all. 
In the first place, man were not, were it not for the sex 
mystery, and once he ivas, the Egyptian priests knew that 
he could unfold, here in this life, so that he could step over, 
as it were, many of the spaces between this world and his 
God. 



•I 1 6 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

and the deification of their emblems as an act of religious 
duty. While we know that this view of the origin of sex 
worship is the true one, we can well forgive those who did 
not know for believing that it was an offspring of man's 
merely animal and instinctive nature, and such it became 
when the people had lost its divine meaning. 

"Thus it was with man's religious beliefs. Solar and sex 
worship, as symbolical of the divine, born of his highest 
conception of the divine plan, rose into a perfect science, the 
science by which the antique man perceived the corre- 
spondence "between earth and the heavens, the Creator and 
his creatures. This famous era of ancient civilization cul- 
minated, crossed the equinox of prophetic death, descended 
into the night of corruptions through clandestine priest- 
hoods and sensualism, and perished with the closing up of 
the Oriental dynasties. 

"The real spiritual truths of antiquity have never died, 
for their exhibition has at times illuminated the ages with 
light, so little understood that their holy radiance has been 
mistaken for the baneful glare of "supernaturalism." 
They have never died, but given promises, and noiv give 
•full assurance that the resurrection is at hand. 

' ' The fall of man is thus but the shadow of a still diviner 
truth, the substance of which is — the fall of spirit. All 
existence originates in spirit."* 

"After men began to congregate, the necessities of the 
state (the word "state" is here considered as a number of 
people) required the appointment of certain persons (a) 
whose sole business it was to regulate the times, seasons, ob- 
servances and laws of such state. Their first labors were 
naturally directed to the most pressing demands of the 
people, and after the social organism was completed, re- 
ligion would next demand their attention. During the cen- 
turies preceding the time when men began to build cities the 
wandering herdsmen had no doubt observed most anxiously 



* According to "Art Magic,' 



OB EGYPTIAN" INITIATION. I17 

the movements of the heavenly bodies, and by tradition had 
preserved a knowledge of the names and movements of the 
principal luminaries, but it required the combined intelli- 
gence and wealth of the nations to organize a complete 
system of stellar symbolism. The starry hosts very soon 
began to be considered the residences of the Gods, (6) and 
it became the business of the priests of religion to locate 
them in their appropriate domiciles. These men, therefore, 
who were set apart by the people became their priests and 
teachers, and their religion most naturally assumed the 
astronomical form. 

a. In ancient times there were men who withdrew alto- 
gether from the labors and pleasures of the world, and in 
solitary places devoted themselves to religious contempla- 
tion. This lonely existence on the silent mountains, or amid 
the darkness of immense forests, infested by serpents and 
wild beasts. The human soul, unsatisfied in its cage of 
finite limitation, is always aspiring after the good and the 
true, always eagerly hoping for messengers from above, and 
therefore prepares to receive them. Thus these saintly 
hermits came to be objects of extreme veneration among the 
people. Men traveled far to inquire of them how sins might 
be expiated, or diseases cured, for it was believed that in 
thus devoting themselves to a life beyond the tumult of the 
passions, occupied solely with penance and prayer, they ap- 
proached very near to God, and received direct revelations 
of His divine wisdom. 

It was thus that the priestly orders had their beginning. 
These priests, through their chaste life, meditation, and 
development came to have intercourse with the beings of 
the heavens and they could thus act as mediators between 
the God and the people. They were thus the sole con- 
servators of the mysteries, for such were the things that 
they had been taught by the gods. It was also through this 
that they came to maintain their authority over the people 
and taught them as much as they could receive. It was not 
that they deemed the knowledge that they had received, as 



Il8 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

too high for the masses, that they did not give to all the 
wisdom that was theirs, but they knew that the people could 
not receive it for the one great reason that they, the people, 
were not prepared as they themselves had been, and there- 
fore could not receive but part of the sublime truths. 

b. Every human soul was supposed to attract to itself 
from the moment of birth two spirits, the one powerful to 
influence for good, the other for evil. These spirits were 
called by the ancients good and evil Genii ; and the natural 
proclivities to vice or virtue in the individual to whom they 
ministered were supposed to be stimulated or exalted, ac- 
cording as the soul gave heed to the inspiration of the 
tempter, or the counsellor. 

Besides the realms of beings above enumerated, it was 
claimed that other orders existed, not actually wholly good 
or purely evil; neither entirely spiritual, nor actually 
material in their natures; creatures of the elements, corre- 
sponding in their state, power and function, to the different 
elements in the universe, and filling up all the realms of 
space with uncounted legions of embryonic and rudimental 
forms. 

These beings were, by reason of their semi-spiritual state, 
invisible to man, and, because of the gross tincture of mat- 
ter in their composition, unable to discern any orders of being 
but themselves, except through rare and exceptional rifts in 
their atmospheric surroundings.* They corresponded to 
the ether, air, atmosphere, water, earth, minerals, plants 
and different elements of which the earth and the universe 
generally is composed. Some of these beings were malicious 



*It was the knowledge of the priests and the initiates as 
to how to produce these atmospheric conditions through the 
burning of incense, etc., and, after drawing them and caus- 
ing them to appear before them, to give the priests such 
knowledge or power as they desired to possess. This comes 
properly under the heading of Ancient Initiation, and even 
as taught in the present Initiation of the Egyptian Secret 
Hierarchy. 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. II9 

and antagonistic to man, and others harmless and good. All 
exerted power, especially in the direction of the elements to 
which they corresponded ; they were said to be endowed with 
graduated degrees of intelligence, and to have bodies subject 
to the laws of birth, growth, change and death. 

From being invisible to man, except through rare or 
prepared conditions (which the priesthood and initiates 
knew how to do), they were termed spirits; from being 
embryonic, rudimentary and attached only to certain frag- 
ments of the universe, they were termed elementals. 

There were many kinds of spiritual essences besides souls, 
as spirits of earth, the sea, running water, and even some 
that inhabit the holes of reptiles that live on the banks of 
rivers Their abiding place cannot be named, with- 
out enumerating all the secret corners of the earth. That 
these spirits are often under the dominion of man (initi- 
ates) is as true as that they may be transformed by the 
arch enemy of mankind into instruments of ill, to work the 
deeds of darkness, in which he delights. 

Lao-Kiun, a contemporary of the great Chinese sage 
Confucius, founded a school, which, for the spirituality of 
its doctrines, far transcended the teachings of Confucius. 
His text of religious faith was: "Tao (God) produced 
one ; one produced two ; two produced three ; and three pro- 
duced all things." 

Jamblichus, quoting from the Hermetic writings, said: 
1 ' From this one came all gods that be, all spirits, good and 
bad, and many that be neither very wicked nor yet very 
bad." 

These teachers seem to have organized a planetary system 
of worship, which was only to be provisional, and that must 
in time give place to a more perfect one, and an organization 
of the heavens into constellations, just as nations organize 
under provisional governments, until they can form and 
adopt a constitution. This planetary was a system of seven, 
that being the number of the planets known to the ancients, 
and from this came the symbolical or perfect number of 



120 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

seven. This system was only a forerunner, a transition, a 
prophecy, a wilderness, a John Baptist, a voice to precede 
and usher in that more perfect system of twelves (a) that 
has been perpetuated in every religion under heaven to this 
present day. 

a. The Egyptians, even m the most ancient times, wero 
acquainted with the signs of the zodiac. Their monuments, 
which were known to be of the earliest antiquity, are 
covered with figures, among which those of the crab and the 
wild goat, of the balance and the scorpion, of the ram and 
the bull, of the kid, the virgin, and the rest are frequently 
found. 

The twelve symbolical names, which signify the twelve 
portions, both of the year and the heavens, were a pro- 
digious help towards regulating the beginnings of sowing, 
mowing, harvest, and the other works of mankind. 

It was found very convenient, to expose in public a small 
figure, or a single letter, to notify the exact time which cer- 
tain general works were to be begun in common, and when 
certain feasts were to be celebrated. The use of these figures 
appeared so convenient, that they by degrees extended it to 
more things than the order of the calendar. Several 
symbols, fit to inform the people of certain truths, by some 
analogy or relation between the figure and the thing they 
had in mind to make understood, were devised. 

This method of saying or showing one thing, to intimate 
others, is what induced among the Eastern nations the taste 
of allegories. They preserved, for a long time, the method 
of teaching everything under symbols, calculated, by a 
mysterious outside, to excite curiosity, which was after- 
wards recompensed by the satisfaction of having discovered 
the truths which they concealed. Pythagoras, who had 
travelled among the Eastern nations, thence brought that 
custom into Italy. 

Ham,* and those of his descendants who came to inhabit 



*Ham, or Hammon, being commonly called God, Jehov, 
Jehov- Amnion, the city of Thebes, where he had dwelt 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 121 

the banks of the Nile, and the Lower Egypt, first tried to 
cultivate the earth according to the order of the year, and in 
the manner used in other countries ; but no sooner were they 
ready to cut down their harvest, in the driest season of the 
year, and without the least appearance of rain, but the river 
swelled, to their great amazement; it flowed on a sudden 
over its banks, and took from them those provisions which 
they thought themselves already sure of. The waters .con- 
tinued to rise to the height of twelve, fourteen, or even 
sixteen cubits, covered all the plains, carried away their 
cattle, and even the inhabitants themselves. The inunda- 
tion lasted ten to eleven weeks, and sometimes longer. 

It is true, the overflowing left on the land a mud which 
improved it ; but, the difficulty of obtaining a harvest, since 
the summer, the only time proper for it brought the stcvm 
and the inundation, caused Ham to quit both the lower and 
the middle Egypt, and retire to the higher. He there 
founded the city of Thebes, originally called Ammon-no, 
Amnion's abode: But many, finding it inconvenient to re- 
move from lower Egypt, which after the retiring of the 
waters, was throughout the remaining part of the year like 
a beautiful garden, and a delightful place to dwell in, en- 



longest, and which they anciently called Amnion's abode 
(Ammonno) , was afterwards called the City of God. 

This word Jehov, in its primitive use, signifies the Father 
of life, the supreme being. The Greeks translated it by that 
of Zeus, or Dios, and the Romans by that of Deus; all names 
having the same sense. They sometimes joined to it the 
name of Father, which was but an interpretation of it. and 
called him Diospiter or Jevpiter. The Amnion, which be- 
came confounded with God, and with Osiris, or the star 
moderator of seasons, became the famous Jov-Ammon, or 
the Jupiter-Ammon, and had always the first honors paid 
to him, after the other symbols had in like manner con- 
verted into so many celestial personages and powerful 
deities. The reason of this pre-eminence is founded on their 
having annexed the idea of the founder of the colony to the 
most brilliant of their symbols, that of their Osiris. 



122 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

deavored to fortify themselves against the return of the 
waters. 

They observed from one year to another, that the over- 
flowing was always preceded by an Etesian (annual) wind, 
which blowing from north to south, about the time of the 
passage of the sun under the stars of the crab, drove the 
vapors towards the south, and gathered them in the middle 
of the country (Ethiopia, now Nubia and Abyssinia, 
whence the Nile came) which there caused plentiful rain, 
that swelled the waters of the river, and brought on the 
inundation of lower Egypt. 

But they wanted the means of knowing exactly the time 
wdien it should be necessary for them to be prepared for the 
inundation. The flowing of the river beyond its bank3 
happened some days sooner or later, when the sun was 
under the stars of the lion. Near the stars of Cancer, though 
pretty far from the band of the Zodiac towards the south, 
and a few weeks after their rising, they see in the morning 
one of the most brilliant, if not the largest star of the whole 
heavens, ascending the horizon. It appeared a little before 
the rising of the sun, which had rendered it almost in- 
visible for a month or two before. The Egyptians then 
pitched upon the rising of this magnificent star as the in- 
fallible sign of the sun's passing under the stars of Leo, and 
the beginning of the inundation. That star became the 
public mark, on which every one was to keep a watchful 
eve, not to miss the instant of retiring to the higher ground. 
As it was seen but a very little time above the horizon, to- 
wards the dawning of the aurora, which becoming every 
instant clearer, soon made it disappear, it seemed to show 
itself to the Egyptians, merely to warn them of the over- 
flowing, which soon followed. The star was called by them 
the Aniibis or Thaaut, of which more will be said later on. . 

' ' In the G reek mythology the god Saturn had his domicile 
or throne in the planet Saturn, the farthest from the sun 
then known, whose year required thirty of ours, and as he 
measured time with the slowest pace he was called the father 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 1 23 

of time. From the knowledge possessed by the literati that 
this system must give place to another, came the prophecy 
written in the book of fate that of his own offspring one 
should dethrone him and occupy his place 

"From this came the myth that Saturn devoured all his 
male children except Jupiter, whom his mother hid until 
manhood, when he warred upon and dethroned his sire. 
The interpretation of the prophecy and myth is found in 
this : Saturn was time ; time destroys all his own works, but 
the sun, one of the works of time under the name of Jupiter, 
the great God, becomes the permanent object of worship in 
the place of the planetary system, and Saturn ceases to be 
the king of the Gods. Before the system of sun worship (a) 
was perfected, although divine honors were paid to it and 
the lesser luminaries, yet old time (for he was old even 
then) was considered the father of all creation, for all 
things were begotten by him in the prolific womb of chaos. 
The god Brahm of the Hindoos was time; bram-a was the 
first of time, the letter "a" denoting one or first (the first 
father) ; in the Hebrew theology a-bram (a-brahm) was the 
first of, or rather the father of time. The parable of Dives 
and Lazarus represents the old and the new year ; as the 
old year expired it was carried into the bosom of time, and 
between time past and time present there was an impass- 
able gulf. 

a. The biographers of two of the principal Hindoo Ava- 
tars or incarnated God-men, Chrishna and Buddha Sakia, 
are closely accordant with the history of the sun-god. The 
births of these Avatars through the motherhood of a pure 
Virgin, their lives in infancy threatened by a vengeful king, 
their flight and concealment in Egypt, their return to work 
miracles, save, heal, and redeem the world, suffer persecu- 
tion, a violent death, a descent into hell, and a reappearance 
as a re-born Saviour, are all items of the sun-god's history, 
wmich maintain in every detail the correspondence between 
the Hindoo and the Christian faith and the Sabean. system. 
The feasts, fasts, seasons of lamentation and rejoicing, the 



1*4 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

reverence paid to fire, flame, heat, light, and even the 
minutest details of ceremonial rites practiced in the most 
ancient astronomical worship, are scattered through the 
varying forms of Hindoo theology, until the parity of the 
three systems cannot be questioned. An equally faithful 
adherence to the Sabean legend is to be found in the story 
of the Indian Dyonisius, subsequently repeated in Egypt, 
and forming the basis of the Osiric legend. 

E'gypt taught the Sun-god's history, and that in a series 
of myths and mysteries still more elaborate than those in 
India. 

The stories of Osiris, Isis, Horus and Typhon are direct 
transcripts of the astronomical scheme. The myths of the 
Gods Zulis and Memnon, the worship of Heliopolis, the 
gorgeous order of the famous mysteries, and the mythical 
personages scattered throughout the Avonderful woof of 
Egyptian theogony, are but elaborations of the Zodiacal 
fable, and the worship of the powers of nature. 

But let this be known to all students of the Egyptian 
mysteries, that beneath all the splendor of their polytheism 
is hidden the mystery, known to the " sons of the Lord of 
heaven," of one God. This truth was guarded by the 
mystics as a mystery, not as a doctrine. 

Christians may ask why this was not taught the people ? 
The answer comes in tones of thunder. It would not do 
and the proof is found in the books of Moses, for after he 
had delivered the Hebrews they simply shouted that he was 
a god, and even the Egyptians were ready to acknowledge 
him as Osiris or Thoth. In some of the temples the priests 
waved incense to Osiris by the name of Musaeusiris, or 
Osiris-Moses; and yet, he had taught them that he was to 
be only their deliverer. Thus it was with all the people 1 the 
initiates had the mystery but the people would not accept it. 

The sublime system of Zoroaster recites the history of the 
sun-god in that of Mithra, finds in Arimanes, the great 
dragon of the skies, and in all sacred times and seasons, 



oe egxttiAn initiation. 125 

ceremonials and traditions, a complete transcript of the 
astronomical religion. 

The Chaldeans, Ethiopians, Phoenicians and the most 
settled of the Arabian tribes, taught the same basic idea in 
their varied systems of worship. 

The Scythian nations generally worship fire, and preserve 
traditions of a crucified sun-god. They celebrate the sun's 
birthday on the 25th of December, and among the tribes of 
the Tartars there is a festal ceremony described as apper- 
taining to the astronomical religion. 

The religion of China and Japan were originally founded 
on the mythical history of the sun-god. Many additions 
and interpolations upon the basic legend obtained in 
Chinese and Japanese worship, but the foundation is 
unique, and the feasts, ceremonial rites and seasons of ob- 
servance, all prove the parity of worship amongst these 
people, with the Sabean system. 

In the islands of Ceylon, Java, the Philippines and 
Moluccas, various forms of solar and astral worship have 
existed for ages. These all are now nothing more than. 
forms, and the one God which they represented in their 
purity, is lost to them. 

The entire splendid imagery of Grecian and Roman 
mythology was but a paraphrase of Egyptian solar worship, 
enlarged, embellished and beautified by the poetic mentality 
01 Greece and Rome. 

The idea of the great spiritual sun of the ancients, the 
unknown and unknowable, finds its perfect correspondence 
in the Greek Zeus and the Christian God — the God who 
dwells alone, and from whom proceed, as 'subordinate eman- 
ations, all the impersonated powers of nature, planetary 
and astral spirits, who figure in the famous Pantheon. 
Apollo, Mercury, or Hermes, Bacchus, Prometheus and 
Esculapius were sun-gods, mediators, saviours; Ceres, 
Proserpina and Pluto played their special parts in the astral 
drama, but all derive their names and histories from the 
same source. Hindoos, Egyptians, Arabians, Parsees, 



126 MYSTERIES OH t)SIRIS 

Greeks and Christians, all drank at the same celestial foun- 
tain, and only varied their rites, ceremonials, names and 
figures to suit the ideality of the land whose age or climatic 
influence determined their intelligence and to the inner 
priests and the initiates, all these names were but as symbols 
and forms of the ona God. 

The Jews, whose Biblic record of war, bloodshed, violence, 
laws, customs, dresses, etc., the Christian world holds sacred 
as the inspired word of God, worshipped a deity who was 
only one of the eloihim or astral tutelary spirits of the 
Egyptians. Bel, Belus, Baal, Baalpeor, Moloch, Dagon, 
Jehovah, Jah, I Am, these, and the names of the various 
other gods, or tutelary deities worshipped by the various 
nations of Arabia and Asia Minor, including the Jews, are 
only so many synonyms of the one mediatorial sun-god, who, 
under every conceivable astral and solar worship, itself an 
external expression of the inner and sublime and har- 
monious order of the universe. 

While nearly every nation of antiquity deemed of God as 
the Demiurgus ; neither male nor female, yet both ; as of a 
central source of life, health, light and creative energy, one 
alone, yet incomprehensible, uncreated and indestructible, 
all taught of subordinate procedures from Him. The first 
of these was a Divine Being corresponding to the Bramah 
of the Hindoo Trinity, the Osiris of Egypt, the Ormuzd of 
the Persians, the Logos of Philo, the Adam Kadman of the 
Caballists. 

The idea embodied in this theogony was that in the deity 
resided the masculine principle of power, and the feminine 
of wisdom, called by the Caballists En Soph and Sophia. 
From the incomprehensible union of these two proceeded a 
third, the Logos, or Word, through which the will of God 
becomes manifested in expression— that is, in the evolution 
of forme*— worlds, suns, systems, reproductive germs, and 
realms of progressive being. In this stupendous system, the 
superior emanations were gods, directing the birth, forma- 
tion and destinies of the worlds; then earm? archangels^ 



OB EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 127 

charged with missions of almighty power and wisdom. To 
them succeeded legions of angels, some entrusted with the 
direction of planets, earths, nations, cities and societies, 
hence called "Tutelary Angels" and worshipped as gods. 

The Hebrew Scriptures continually declare that God put 
it into the heart of such and such individuals to do this or 
that. In the direct and intuitional communion with spiritual 
existences enjoyed by the Hebrews, it was assumed that all 
good and exceptional great powers resulted from inspira- 
tion, and, as explained in the New Testament, those were 
called gods, to whom the word of God came; so when the 
terms God or Lord were made use of to signify the source 
of idea, spiritual influence was the kernel implied in the 
expression. 

"We now come to a consideration of that system that 
became the permanent, organic, scientific worship of all 
ancient nations, and has been perpetuated in its most im- 
portant features in the various religions and Churches to 
our time. Every nation now on earth; every religion in 
existence, still perpetuates, in some of its forms and doc- 
trines, this most ancient religion. The fasts and feasts of 
the ancients ; the rites and ceremonies of the Mohommadaii 
religion; the gorgeous worship of the Romanist; the more 
simple and puritanic observances and doctrines and creeds 
of the Protestant sects, all recognize and perpetuate the 
various pecularities of ancient sun or symbol worship. If 
you would understand why tall spires are peculiar to re- 
ligious edifices; why gilded balls ornament the church 
steeples; why science and architectural beauty require the 
gothic form for sacred edifices ; why Sunday is a holy day ; 
why bread and wine are favorite symbols of religion ; why 
twelve and seven are perfect numbers; in a word, if you 
would understand the mysteries of the Old and New Testa- 
ments, and of all religions, you must master the outlines of 
the system of symbolical religion that was in full vigor 
before the Mosaic era. 

"In organizing the astronomical system the heavens were 



128 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

mapped out according to the apparent motion of the 
heavenly bodies, and so correct were these arrangements 
that modern astronomers have never improved upon them. 
The novice in astronomy is not aware, perhaps, that the 
various groups of stars have been located, or mapped out, 
by drawing around them the outlines of some animal, rep- 
tile, fowl, fish, or some instrument, etc., by which astrono- 
mers are enabled to understand and describe their position 
and movements. The ancients located forty-eight of these 
imaginary forms, called constellations, and based their (for 
the people) religion upon the arrangements, or, more 
properly speaking, this arrangement was the result of their 
religious ideas.* TJ; is of but little consequence, however, 
which had the precedence, or whether the two, viz^ the 
astronomical arrangement and religious belief, grew up to 
completeness side by side. Ancient astronomy carries us 
back to the age of symbolical or picture writing, and fur- 
nishes us with the key to the mysteries of the ancient re- 
ligion and government, and explains many of the mistakes 
made by writers in describing creation. 

"The sun in his apparent motion pursues a course that 
causes it to cross the equator twice in the year, forming an 
angle of twenty-three and a half degrees. These crossings 
are called the vernal and autumnal equinoxes ; one ushers in 
the reign of summer, the other the dominion of winter ; one 
commenced the reign of righteousness, the other the be- 
ginning of iniquity. The two equinoxes formed the base of 
an arch, comprising the two months in which the equinoxes 
occurred, and the five warm months. These seven months 
constituted the ancient kingdom of heaven, wherein the sun 



*The priests, or those who had become priests, first taught 
the people a simple religion, but there were so many changes 
in nature and as the priests gave certain simple symbols for 
these changes, the people seized upon these symbols, which 
always corresponded to some constellation, and made gods 
out of these symbols. Thus we have the worship of the gods 
through symbolism. 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. ±29 

and all the powers of light gathered their trophies from the 
teeming earth ; while the five wintry months were the abode 
of cold, desolation and death. Here Typhon, (a) the leader 
up of the hosts of hell, held undisputed sway and prosecuted 
his work of destruction, even to the seizing of the God of 
heaven, in or at the autumnal equinox, and dragging him 
down to the bottomless pit of the southern hemisphere. The 
path of the sun, by astronomers called the ecliptic, was en- 
closed by two imaginary parallel lines, sixteen degrees dis- 
tant from each other, the sun's path being in the center. 
This space, called the Zodiac, was again divided up into 
twelve arcs of thirty degrees each, making a complete circle 
around the apparent heavens of twelve oblong squares of 
16x30 degrees. In each of these squares was delineated the 
figure of a beast, or some appropriate emblem. 

These figures were, and are, styled the constellations. The 
sun enters each square at the beginning of each month. 

a. Phyton or Typhon, when he became the name of the 
symbol that signified the havoc of waters, was looked upon 
as an ill-omen or ill-minded spirit, a principle fond of 
thwarting, perpetually intent upon crossing and preju- 
dicing them, the Egyptians. They made him the principle 
of all disorder, and charged him with all the physical evils 
they could not avoid, and all the moral evil which they did 
not care to lay to their own charge. Hence came the doc- 
trine of the two opposite principles, equally powerful, in- 
cessantly striving against each other; and alternately van- 
quished and victorious. This doctrine, which from the 
Egyptians was handed down to the Persians, under the 
names of Oromazes and Arimazes, is different from our 
view, according to which God, conformably to the adorable 
views of his providence, employs the ministry of the spirits 
who have preserved in a spirit of uprightness, and 
leaves a certain undefined measure of power to those who 
are fallen from it. The principle of these doctrines is the 
same, they vary only in degree. 

The aversion of the Egyptians for this phyton, their 



I30 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

enemy, and according to their idea, incessantly intent upon 
vexing them, as our devil seems to do us, went so far that 
they no longer dared to pronounce his name. However, we 
find it entire in the language of the Hebrews who had dwelt 
in Egypt, and had contracted the habit of calling by that 
name the most mischievous of serpents, the asp. The entire 
name of Phyton or Python is found again in the most 
ancient and most celebrated records of the ancients. 

Nothing has been more celebrated in antiquity than the 
victory of the sun ; nothing more abhorred than Python, the 
Egyptians, fearing to defile themselves by the bare pro- 
nouncing of that detestable name, retained the letters of it, 
and converted them into that of Typhon, the same as many 
of our people will not dare pronounce the word "devil'.' and 
substitute "old Nick," etc., for it. 

The most solemn and important periods of the astronomi- 
cal year were when the sun descended from the north at the 
close of summer to cross the plane of the autumnal equinox, 
and that when he ascended from the south in the spring to 
cross the vernal equinox. The first motion heralded death to 
the great light-bringer, famine and desolation to the earth ; 
the second inaugurated the rejuvenating powers of his 
triumph and glory in the promise of spring, and the fulfill- 
ment of summer. 

Slight as may seem this foundation for a theology, it is 
on this only, that the superstructure of every theological 
system of the earth has been founded. The Christian 
theology is founded on this same system. The reader should 
bear in mind that this does not mean that there was no 
Jesus of Nazareth, for there ivas, but it means that the 
theology of the Church, which claims his esoteric teachings, 
was founded upon this ancient system of symbolism. The 
birth, the life, the teachings and the death of Jesus of 
Nazareth are made to correspond with this symbolism. All 
Church ritualism and ceremonialism is founded on the 
Egyptian symbolism while the inner teachings of the Christ 
belong to the new dispensation, the same as had been done 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION". 131 

with all past Christie incarnations. It is here where the 
great mistake of scholars is made, they either deny the 
Egyptian symbolism or the Christie incarnation. Both are 
true, but made to correspond to each other, as is proven by 
the early fathers. 

Besides the general titles assigned to the twelve* Zodiacal 
constellations, each separate star visible in the heavens, had 
its name, and was believed to exert an influence peculiar to 



*The numbers seven and twelve are not from accident 
but are those which belong to the creative forces of the uni- 
verse. 

Twelve. This number was first placed in the heavens as 
the signs of the Zodiac, to teach men that they represented 
the material and divine world, and must be brought into 
harmony by the uplifting of the animal nature into 
sympathy with the unity from which it had come. Being 
composed of 1 and 2, we see the unity that brought forth 
all that is, joined to the material or that which had become 
separated from it. It has been written of in every myth of 
the ages, and we find in the twelve labors of Hercules a 
slight indication of the work to be performed before man 
can regain his lost powers. It is the meaning of the story 
of the search for the holy grail, of the twelve followers of 
Christ, of the twelve stones of the New Jerusalem and of 
all the sacred myths where the number twelve is used. 

Seven. This number is even more significant, for it tills 
of the Elohim or seven creative principles that are inherent 
in the very nature of being. It is mentioned in the Bible 
before the number twelve because it was before it both in 
nature and in manifestation. If these numbers are not 
taken into consideration, nothing could be done with man 
to-day. It is of no importance whether we know all that can 
be said about these numbers, but it is of the very greatest 
moment to know that they represent certain centers of 
activity and that we must go to work and purify them. 
Unless we know the tendencies and weaknesses that are the 
result of ages of wrong living, and the places upon which 
the following planetary forces can affect us, we cannot help 
ourselves. It is necessary to know the strength and weak- 
ness of every sign, and the law of influence from the astral 
world. 



132 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

itself for good or evil upon mankind. Thus all the star3 
through or near which the sun passed in summer were 
deemed to be benefieient and in harmony with the celestial 
traveller of the skies, favorable also to the inhabitants of 
earth to whom they aided in dispensing seed-time and 
harvest, fruits, flowers, and all manner of blessings. On 
the other hand, the stars of winter were assumed to exert a 
malignant influence not only on the mighty sun-god, whom 
they opposed, but also upon man and his planet, causing 
storms, tempests, pestilence, and famine. By these malig- 
nant astral influences the gracious sun was shorn of his 
heat-dispensing powers, and the hours of liis illumination 
upon earth were shortened. The majesty of day was so 
obscured by the hosts of malignant spirits, supposed to 
inhabit the wintry stars, that he vainly strove to contend 
against them. On the opposing spiritual forces inhabiting 
the summer and winter constellations, was founded the 
apocalyptic legend of the "war in heaven." 

In this celestial scheme every star became a symbol of 
some good or evil genius; every constellation was a realm, 
peopled by innumerable legions of beneficent or malignant 
angels, and the entire field of the sidereal heavens was made 
the battle-ground of infinite squadrons of opposing angelic 
influences. 

The ancient priests, called from their custom of studying 
the face of the heavens from high watch-towers, Episcopacy 
became in ages of practice familiar with every phase of the 
sublime epic they wrote. They occupied centuries in cor- 
recting their calendars and amending their Zodiacal charts 
until in time they became perfect. They invented thousands 
of allegorical fables descriptive of the scenes, incidents and 
angelic personages taking part in the celestial drama. They 
varied names, images and symbols to suit the progress of 
ideas in revolving ages 

As an example of the leading ideas which prevailed 
throughout this stupendous and sublime system and history 
of the sun-god, when this light-bringing luminary entered 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 1 33 

the sign of Aries, or the Lamb, in March, he was assumed to 
have crossed the vernal equinox and become the Redeemer 
(Christ) of the world from the sufferings and privations of 
winter (Typhon or Satan). Then the earth and its in- 
habitants rejoiced greatly. The young Saviour (risen 
Christ) had entered upon his divine mission, bringing the 
earth out of darkness into light; miraculously healing the 
sick ; feeding starving multitudes, and filling the world with 
blessing. 

This triumphant career culminated to its fullest glory 
between the months of July and August, which, in the 
figurative language of the astronomical religion, was some- 
times called the bethrothal of the Virgin, sometimes the 
marriage feast of the Lion, of July, and the Virgin, of 
August. This was the season of the grape harvest, the time 
when the sun converted (turned into), by his radient heat 
(Cod power), the waters which had desolated the earth in 
winter into the luscious wine of the vintage. In this we 
have the wedding feast without the wine, and Jesus took 
water and turned it into wine. This is the whole mystery 
of that grand symbol. It Avas at this time, the ancient 
astrologers proclaimed, that the great miracle of the solar 
year was performed, and the sun (Son) manifested forth 
his triumphant glory. 

From thence the constellation of the Scales, or the 
Balances, seems for a time to maintain the celestial here in 
a just and even path ; his miraculous power and life-giving 
presence was hailed with feasts and rejoicings, which lasted 
until the fatal period when the Great Dragon of the Skies, 
the mighty Scorpio (Judas), of October, appears in the 
ascendant. The Saviour of men must cross the autumnal 
equinox and from thence descend into the south — Hades, 
Acheron, Sheol, Hell or pit, according to the legend of .the 
nation. 

In this is symbolized the whole career of Jesus from the 
time of his first miracle, through his triumphant journey, 
to the time when Judas, one of his disciples, proved false, 



134 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

betrayed him, when, he was crucified, died and descended 
into Hades. 

To announce the dire calamity at hand, the Dragon, of 
October, is preceded by a bright and glorious star, called in 
the spring Vesper, or the evening star; in the autumn, 
Lucifer, or ' ' the son of the morning. ' ' In the sweet vernal 
season this splendid luminary is the herald of summer, the 
brightest and most beautiful of the heavenly host. Then it 
appears high in the heavens, and occupies what is signifi- 
cantly called the seat of pride. Appearing in the boding 
season of autumn, low on the edge of the horizon, and 
shining only in the early dawn, its name is changed with 
its station — it is now the fallen 'angel; the mighty rebel, 
who, seduced by pride and vaulting ambition, has been de- 
throned and cast down to the ominous depths of the lowest 
hell. Transformed into Lucifer, ''Son of the Morning," 
this star becomes the herald of the darkest ill that can beset 
the path of the celestial Saviour. 

The constellation of the great Dragon is the most power- 
ful of the entire Zodiac. From its peculiar form, and the 
immense group of shining stars that extend in the convolu- 
tions of its resplendent train, it has been called the Starry 
Serpent of the Skies. Its attendant luminaries are assumed 
to be that third of the hosts of heaven seduced by the rebel 
angel from their allegiance, and its position as the inaugural 
constellation of the much dreaded wintry season impresses 
upon it the ominous name of Satan, or the adversary. And 
thus, from the position of a group of stars, and their ap- 
parition in the season deemed fatal to the prosperity of 
earth and its inhabitants, has arisen that stupendous legend, 
so world-wide, of the existence of an incarnate spirit of evil, 
the Satan of the Persians, the Typhon of Egypt, the Pluto 
of the Greeks, the old Serpent of the Jews, and the most 
popular of all objects of fear and worship, the Devil of the 
Christians. And all this for the one great reason that 
humanity has not yet learned that the "fall" of man was 
not caused by any snake, devil, serpent, or anything of the 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 135 

kind, but simply by the desire of the immortals to know and 
to be. In the meantime, humanity, both Christian and 
heathen, are following the old legend of the Satan and must 
follow it until they can worship their God without any 
elaborate symbolism, but in "spirit and in truth," as Jesus 
taught. 

Following up the astronomical legend, we find the great 
Dragon of October waging its annual war against the Sun- 
God (Jesus of the Christian). By the influence of its 
leader, Lucifer, the celestial Sun-God has already been put 
to death in his crossification (crucifixion) of the autumnal 
equinox ; from thence he is cast down into the power of the 
two evil months — November and December — (the two 
thieves) who are crucified with him on the autumnal 
equinox. 

In the legendary of the astronomical historians, the 
cluster of stars which appear in the midwinter sky bear a 
resemblance to a manger or stable, whilst the soul eye of the 
ancient ''Episcopacy" saw the reappearance of the Virgin ' 
or summer, With her companion, Bootes, or the constellation 
called Joseph, or Joseppe. For three days at midwinter the 
feeble radiance of the sun appears to remain stationary (in 
the tomb), yet so greatly obscured, that the legend declares 
he descended to the nethermost parts of the universe (hell) 
and is lost to sight. 

In the Greek theology this three days of solar obscuration 
is accounted for by the descent of Orpheus into the realms 
of Pluto, where, by the magic of his sweet music, he is sup- 
posed to rescue lost souls from the very jaws of Hades. In 
the astronomical legend the vanished God is represented as 
going on a mission of mercy, to illuminate wit*\His radiance 
the darkened souls who have been held captive in the realms 
of perdition. At length, on the 25th day of December, he 
reappears, and amidst the figurative paraphernalia of con- 
stellated stars then in the ascendant, he is declared to have 
been born in a manger through the maternity of the Zodi- 
acal Virgin. 



I36 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

The women who have wept for Tammuz, the Syrian Sun- 
God, the mourners who have lamented with Isis for the 
Egj-ptian Osiris, the Greeks who have wandered with Ceres 
in search of the lost Proserpina, the devotees who have 
wailed for the slain Chrishna, one of the Sun-Gods of the 
Hindoos, and the Marays who weep at the sepulchre for the 
Christ of the Jews, all the nations of antiquity throughout 
the Orient — each of whom, under many names and in many 
forms, have adored the Sun-God, and believed in his 
annual birth, life, miracle, death and resurrection — all have 
united to celebrate the new birth of their Saviour on the 
25th of December, 

•'Though Christ in Bethlehem 
A thousand times be born. 

If He is not born in thei. 
The soul is all forlorn. 

— John Scheffler. 

Let the reader bear in mind that this ancient system was 
symbolical, that the sun represents the true God, the moon 
his spouse ; correspondency the earth upon which we live, 
and. the planets were his angels or messengers. The con- 
stellations north and south of the Zodiac were the provinces 
of his empire, while the milky way was the golden street or 
highway on which gods and angels travelled to and from the 
throne of deity. The war in heaven, as has been said, repre- 
sented the conflict between heat and cold, summer and 
winter. 

"The ancients worshipped the genius of fruitfulness, and 
deprecated the wrath of the powers of sterility. They 
symbolized fertility, by the egg, the bull, the serpent, (a) 
and the organs of generation, (b) 

a. The female emblem was signified by a unit, a circle, a 
beat-shaped shell, a lozenger, or any object, animate or in- 
animate, that resembled these figures, or implied receptivity, 
fruitfulness or maternity. The union of the female unit 
with the male triad, was designated by the sacred and 
mystic number 4, or symbolized by a serpent with his tail in 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 1 37 

his mouth, two fishes bent to form a circle, the rite of cir- 
cumcision, and many other symbolical rites and figures. 

The serpent worship is as old as sex and solar worship, 
and a thorough understanding of the three systems forms a 
clue to all the signs, symbols, allegories and mysteries of all 
the ancient faiths that prevailed before the Christian era. 

The ideas indicated by these symbols, and the legends at- 
tached to them, underlie all those stupendous rites, solemn 
mysteries and gigantic monuments of art that have overlaid 
the once splendid Orient with ruins that will remain the 
mystery and admiration of the race till time shall be no 
more. The legends and symbols of these interblended 
systems prevailed after the Christian era, and were pre- 
served by the Gnostics, Manicheans, Neo Platonists, and 
many of the early sects amongst Christian and philosophic 
Greeks; they are preserved and prevail amongst the most 
civilized of sects to-day, but the pity, without the real ap- 
preciation of the ideas that once vitalized them. 

The bells and holy candles, the lambs, bulls, eagles, men, 
lions, and twelve apostolic personages, the serpents, etc., 
which cast their prismie glory from costly painted window 
on the chequered marbles of the floors beneath, are all but 
so many astronomical signs of antique fire worship, or 
emblems of sexual religion. The very shapes of the steeples 
that crown the "houses of God" are mementos of the 
reverence accorded to the sacred flame, or veiled effigies of 
the ''divine Ling-ham." 

Soul and spiritual essence is the God and the procedure, 
the Creator and the creature ; all things else are phantasma- 
goric shapes, born of the hour, as formative moulds in which 
soul essence grow, perishing with the hour when their office 
is ended. 

Isis, the mother principle in nature, was very commonly 
represented as a hawk-headed deity, from the sacredness 
attached to the idea that the hawk was the bird of the sun, 
could ascend to its resplendent heights and gaze with un- 
dimmed eye into its blazing beams. The serpent was es- 



1$& MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

teemed in Egypt, as in other Oriental lands, as an emblem 
alike of the deific principle of good, namely : Immortality, 
rejuvenescence, wisdom and health, and of death, terror, 
destruction and evil.* 

The character of the Egyptian writing designated to 
signify God, was not a simple flame or blaze as was generally 
the usage in the East, but a circle, or rather a sun. They 
added to the circle, or solar globe, several marks or at- 
tributes, which served to characterize so many different per- 
fections. For instance, in order to indicate that the 
Supreme Being (the one Gk>d) is the author and preserver 
of life, they annexed to the circle sometimes two points of 
flame, but more commonly one or two serpents. This animal, 
as stated, was always among the Egyptians, as in other 
countries, the symbol of life and death. Not because the 
serpent makes itself look young again, by every year casting 
its old skin, but because among the most of the Eastern 
nations, as the Phoenicians, Hebrews, Arabians, and others, 
with the language of whom that of Egypt had an affinity, 
the word Heve or Heva equally signifies the life, a serpent 
or Eva. The name of Him who is (God), the great name of 
God, Jov, or Jehovah, thence draws its etymology. Heve, 
or the name of the common mother of mankind, comes like- 
wise of this word. Thus it will be seen that the Virgin 
Mary, the Serpent, the God, the Eva and the emblem wor- 
ship are all one and the same thing. It is in this that will 
be found the mighty mystery of both generation and re- 
generation. Note also that Eva is the Ave of the Church 
ritual. 

b. Nearly all writers on the ancient mysteries have hinted 
that Phallic worship prevailed amongst the ancients, and that 
its emblems are abundantly interspersed with other records ; 



*The mystery of the serpent cannot be given in any book. 
Moses knew this mystery and tried to teach the Hebrews 
to observe it but failed. It is the greatest mystery known to 
the gods or man and there is either life or death in it, ac- 
cording as it is obeyed. 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 1 39 

but the truth is, that all creeds and records of all creeds, are 
overlaid with emblems of the Phallic worship, and that there 
is scarcely a monument or inscription of antiquity which 
does not, in some form or other, perpetuate the idea of solar 
and sex worship, and the modern Christian, deny it as he 
may, is one of the greatest followers of this worship, and the 
worst of it is, that he follows it in the form so absolutely 
forbidden by Moses and the Prophets. 

Nearly every Scriptural name has a direct bearing upon 
sexual ideas. Every title, including the syllables El, Om, 
On, Di, and Mi signify the same ideas. The titles ascribed 
to the sun and the generative gods are mutually convertible, 
and both are continually bestowed upon the gods of the 
ancients. 

The chief symbols of these interblended systems are 
found in the various forms of crosses extant; in the Phallus 
or Lingham, and the Yoni, the male and female emblems of 
generation; in the triangle and the tau, the origin of the 
cross, the serpent who in so many ways was esteemed as a 
deific emblem, and every object, natural or artificial, which 
bore the least resemblance to the figures enumerated above. 

As regards the cross, it has frequently been attempted to 
show that it owes its sacred character to the instrument of 
punishment upon which the Christian's God was supposed 
to have suffered death. Ages before the Jews were known 
as a nation, the cross was regarded throughout the East as a 
sacred symbol. 

To remove the obscenity of the idea attached to its 
original meaning, from the image, which modern civiliza- 
tion so devoutly cherishes, it has been urged that it was 
reverenced by the Egyptians, because it was used as a nilo- 
meter or measure of the river Nile. Granting this, and ad- 
mitting that the Nile was held sacred by the Egyptians as 
the source of plenty and irrigation, hence, that the nilo- 
meter, with its upright post and crosspiece to mark the 
height to which the waters attained, was also held sacred as 
an emblem of redemption from famine, or a sign of possible 



$46 Mysteries of osiftiS 

destruction, this does not account for the prevalence of the 
cross nor the reverence attached to it in lands where no nilo- 
meter was required, and in the distant ages ere nilometers 
were invented. 

Sculptured over every temple of the East, the cross in 
many forms was used to signify the generative power. 

It was originally designed to represent a trinity, and thus 
gave rise to the sacredness attached to the number three, 
with all its multiples, and in all the varieties of form in 
which the cross it found from the plain T, the Tau of the 
Scandinavians, or the hammer of Thor, to the eight-sided 
cross of the Templars, and in all its variousness it signified 
and does signify, nothing more or less than the fertility, 
fecundity and creative structure of the masculine principle 
of generation in its outer, and in its inner mystery, or the 
mystery of the priesthood — jKe-generation. 

The sacred triangle, representative throughout the East 
of the masculine principle of generation, and to the initiate 
the three planes of being — the Yoni, circle, Lozenge, or 
horizontal bar, significant of the female principle, these, 
with the crosses of every variety, indicative of the same 
generative and re-generative principles, were esteemed by 
the Egyptians as most sacred symbols. 

The reader should bear in mind that the Egyptians, 
Greeks and all ancient and classic nations, believed in the 
doctrine already outlined — that the soul had once existed in 
a purely spiritual state; that, tempted by the demands of 
sense (desire), it had yearned for mortal birth — descended 
or "fallen" into an earthly condition, and by its proba- 
tionary sufferings and trials on earth, regained the Para- 
disacal bliss from which it had fallen. In this Arcanum the 
Ancients represented the soul's alliance with the birth into 
material form through earthly generation, but the mystery 
of the ancient priesthood was to teach man how to gain im- 
mortality through this very emblem by regeneration. This 
is also the mystery of the two great successors of the 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 14! 

Ancient Egyptian Priesthood — the Rosicrucian Brother- 
hood and Fraternity of Osiris. 

The plainness of speech and characteristic nature of the 
symbols seem to be revolting to the modern sense of pro- 
priety and modesty, but the ancients were not as pseudo- 
modest as the moderns and sought to strengthen, and did 
strengthen, the soul against sensual indulgence by familiar- 
izing the mind with ideas and forms connected with the 
Phallic Rate. 

Jamblichus said: "Exhibitions of this kind in the 
mysteries were designed to free us from licentious passions, 
by gratifying the sight, and at the same time vanquishing 
desire, through the awful sanctity with which these rites 
were accomplished." It is natural that the profane cannot 
understand these mysteries, for only he who passes through 
the ancient form of initiation knows that he becomes the 
master of the passions, instead of the passions being the 
master over the man. In this is regeneration and the 
mystery of the Phallic Rite. 

"The Bible and the religious forms and doctrines of 
Christendom came more directly from the Egyptians. 
Moses was thoroughly educated (a) in their severer 
mysteries, and, with some modification, introduced them 
into the holy land. After the death of Joshua, and during 
the intestine and other wars that followed, the knowledge 
of this system of religion together with the knowledge of the 
arts, was almost entirely lost, and for an indefinite period 
"every man did that which was good in his own eyes." 
During this "interregnum," extending from an unknown 
data until the eighteenth year of the reign of the good king 
Josiah, there evidently was no book of the law accessible or 
known to the kings, priests, or people. During the times in 
which Ezra, Ezckiel and Daniel flourished, the astronomical 
worship was again introduced among the Jews from 
Babylon. (&) The visions of Ezekicl and Daniel, and other 
prophets, bear the mark of Chaldean worship ; the cherubim 
and the conflict of the beasts as described in their prophecies 



X4* MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

point unmistakably to Assyrian (c) symbolism. During- the 
various wars in which the Jews were engaged, and the 
consequent anarchy that followed, they came in contact 
with various nations, and sometimes borrowed, sometimes 
gave away, fragments of their peculiar religious notions and 
allegories. Of this kind is the story of Jephtha 's daughter, 
agreeing as it does in all its important features, even to the 
name, with the story of Iphigenia, of the Greek mythology; 
the Jews having either borrowed from, or lent it to the 
Greek poets. 

a. Moses was both a prophet and a priest. His extra- 
ordinary spiritual endowment may have been greatly ex- 
aggerated by the egotistical style employed throughout the 
Hebrew Scripture, the fact of his high inspiration and open 
communion with the Tutelary Diety Jehovah cannot be 
doubted. This admitted, his power as a magician affords a 
stupendous picture of that esoteric wisdom, in which the 
Egyptian priesthood was so well versed. His contest with 
the magicians of Egypt, his conclusion amidst the awful 
mysteries of sinai, his establishment of priestly laws, ordi- 
nances and rites ; in a word, the whole order of his wonder- 
ful and sublime history, gives a strange insight into the 
almost God-like powers with which a hierophant of the most 
ancient mysteries became endowed. 

Moses was an initiate of the Egyptian priesthood; this 
our secret records show, this is sustained by Manetho, a 
G-reek historian, who claims to have authentic knowledge on 
this subject.* 

b. To judge of the origin and characteristics of Jewish 
mysticism, it must be remembered that the people had been 
ruled over in turn by the kings of Mesopotamia, Moab, 



*The records held by the Fraternity of Osiris of the 
present day show that Moses was an initiate of the Egyptian 
Brotherhood, up to their highest degree. Manetho was an 
initiate, not of the Egyptian Priesthood, but of the 
Fraternity of Osiris. 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 143 

Midian, Amnion, Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Syria, 
Macedonia, and Rome. 

The various forms of worship practiced in each of these 
nations left their impress on Jewish theogony, rendering it 
far more a transcript of the beliefs then prevailing through- 
out the East, than a concrete system of any one nation's 
religion. 

During the prophetic dispensation, an interregnum oc- 
curs, marked by the struggle between a few inspired men to 
restore a pure form of Monotheistic worship, and tho 
idolatrous tendencies of the people to imitate their neigh- 
bors, who throughout Arabia and Syria practiced the lowest 
forms of solar and sex worship. The Babylonish captivity 
leaving its strong admixture of Chaldean ideas, follows, 
after which and during the Roman rule arises that sublime 
form of pure religion, so thoroughly identical with the 
doctrines of the Essenes, by whom Jesus of Nazareth was 
taught and whose doctrines he preached. 

c. Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, was a Chal- 
dean by birth, and though he protested against the idola- 
trous practices of his own land, and voluntarily quitted it, 
to found a purer and more monetheistic form of worship, 
still he impressed upon his descendants many ideas, derived 
from the astronomical religion of the Chaldeans, especially 
their reverence for fire, the custom of rearing altars to deity, 
of upright stones; their system of sacrificial offerings and 
direct communication with tutelary spirits, believed to have 
special charge over nations and people. 

Josephus affirms that Abraham went into Egypt, and 
there became an auditor of the priests, who greatly admired 
him for his wisdom. It was from the Egyptians that 
Abraham derived his ideas of the sacredness of circum- 
cision, a rite which all had to undergo before they could 
enter the priesthood, and a rite which Abraham enjoined 
upon all the people, as the most important of all. religious 
obligations upon his posterity. His immediate descendants 
were only herdsmen, and far less instructed than himself, 



144 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

yet they openly communed with spiritual beings, and re- 
ceived counsel and direction through dreams and visions. 

"In later days, the Jews were divided into four classes, 
viz: The Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes (Es-on-es) a 
and the people. The Pharisees adopted the Persian fire 
worship, after the Persian captivity. The name Pharisee, 
Parsee and Persia are derived from Pur of the Greeks, the 
word for fire, also the root of purity. Jesus belonged to the 
sect of Essenes, who held to and practiced the stern 
morality, and taught in the allegorical or parabolical style 
of the ancient Egyptians. His name I-Es-us, compounded 
of the letter I, the Father ; Es, the fire ; and the Latin ter- 
mination Us, was Egyptic; the sect to which he belonged 
bore an Egyptian name, compounded of Es, the fire ; On, the 
being; and Es repeated; containing the three or trinity of 
names denoting a divine origin* 

"The difference in the doctrines of the two sects, Phari- 
see and Essene, was slight ; it was simply the difference 
between two sects of symbolic worshippers ; one, the Phari- 
sees, worshipped God under the symbol of the perpetual 
fire that was kept burning in the temple; the other wor- 
shipped the one God through the symbol of the sun, or ac- 
cording to the most elevated conception of that sect. Jesus 
himself testified that the Pharisees taught good doctrines, 
and told his followers to observe their teachings, but not do 
after their works. This sect of the Essenes had its ramifica- 
tions throughout the enlightened part of the world. By its 
members were taught the most elevated morals, and the 
most disinterested benevolence. There is a most remarkable 
coincidence between the teachings of Confucius, in India 
and China, and the teachings of Jesus in Judea, and the life 
of Jesus, as written many years after his death by his fol- 
lowers, agrees most wonderfully with the life of Chrishna, 
as handed down to us from an earlier period. The reason 
of this agreement between the two teachers are to be found 



*See"TheSonof Man." 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. J.45 

in the method adopted in early ages of deifying their heroes, 
and then writing their history according to the astro- theo- 
logical science of that age. 

In the advent of Jesus of Nazareth a revolutionary 
change in Jewish history occurs, which could not have been 
effected without the intervention of just such a pure_, high 
and holy teacher as he was. 

Notwithstanding the fact that the worshippers of the 
Sun-God in the personality of the Jewish Messiah, destroy 
faith in his very existence by the willful perversity with 
which they insist upon maintaining from him an impossible 
biography, the origin, growth and specialties of the Christie 
faith in Jerusalem 1 , demand the interposition of a human- 
divine founder, and point, with conclusive testimony, to the 
influence of the noble Essenian initiate of the character at- 
tributed to the meek and gentle Nazarene. 

The biographies of Jesus were compiled long after his 
decease, and were the work of men who, in order that cer- 
tain Scriptures might be fulfilled in his person, interblended 
the records, which — as the history of the Sun-God — had 
been so popularly engrafted into all religious systems 
throughout the East for thousands of years before the time 
of the Master Jesus. 

The immediate followers of the beloved Master, to those 
who had heard his voice, and witnessed his exalted spiritual 
powers, Jesus was no mystery, his existence no myth. They 
had often marveled at his words, and failed to understand 
that when he spoke from the simple standpoint of his 
humanity, he was one of themselves, and represented him- 
self only as an imperfect mortal; but when he was "in the 
spirit," as he often was, he spoke as if he had indeed lived 
before Abraham; as of "the Son of God," the mysterious 
and long-promised Messiah. The devotion which rose to 
enthusiasm, and subsequently to a faith which has survived 
the upheavel of dynasties, the rise and fall of empires, and 
the changes which have revolutionized the old earth and 
builded and rebuilded it again and again, was not founded 



I46 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

on a myth, a mistake, or an idle superstition. 

When good, pure, divinely inspired and divinely acting 
men enter upon the scene, and this poor degraded humanity 
of ours can look up to such an one and feel his kind hands 
healing their sickness, and hear his tender tones com- 
passionating them, and bringing them very near to the 
awful mystery of the unknown God, translating that 
majesty into the pitying and strictly human character of a 
Father, who can wonder that such an one was deemed as a 
god, and invested with all the popular attributes of that 
mediatorial deity, whose existence and occasional appear- 
ance on earth, incarnate in human form, had been taught 
and believed in for countless ages ? The Jews were well ac- 
quainted with this popular idea, and their great theological 
teacher, Paul, obviously favored it; hence it cannot excite 
surprise that many of the early Christians were disposed to 
invest the memory of their beloved Master with the same 
divine attribute that had been assigned to many another 
great initiate before. Whatever the simple followers of 
Jesus may have deemed of his divinity, it was his gospel of 
love which can make man a God, his pure life, his divinely 
compassionate nature, that so endeared his memory to 
suffering human hearts, and sustained the faith of his dis- 
ciples to preach his gospel amidst the fires of persecution 
and the tortures of martyrdom. But the simplicity and 
practical beauty of this gospel of love died out, and when it 
became entangled in the sophisms of learning, and identified 
with incomprehensible systems of metaphysical speculation. 

The early Christie faith taught by the pure Esseniaa 
Jesus, perished to the masses about the time when Constan- 
tino the Great usurped its name and fame, in order to 
justify his own iniquities and atrocious murders. Its cruci- 
fied -remains were buried under the Athanasian creed, and 
the ecclesiastical fables of the Council of Nice, and nothing 
of it was left but the name ; the body without the soul, the 
letter without the spirit; the God without his humanity — 
the mystery without the meaning— nothing was left— to the 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 1 47 

masses — of the gospel of the loving Masinr, but the name. 
However, the time of the "Son of Man" is here and we will 
again have a purer Christie gospel. 

Dear reader, if you believe in the divinity of Jesus do not 
censure us for writing of him as though he were a man. In 
all things written, which we conceive to be truly descriptive 
of him, he appears to us as the most perfect specimen of 
manhood that the world has yet seen. That he claimed for 
himself anything more than that he was a teacher sent from 
God, we do not believe; or, that he claimed any pre- 
eminence of origin or nature over his brethren. All higher 
claims put forth by his followers we believe to be the result 
of a devotional ignorance of the same character with that 
which has lately deified Mary, his mother. 

"Symbolic language, or writing with pictures, is a tedious 
but yet most natural way of communicating ideas. In this 
way the ancients kept their records and perpetuated their 
religious notions. The sun (a) was to them a symbol of 
deity; the moon (b) was his spouse, and the starry hosts 
represented the lesser gods. The method of writing the 
word sun consisted in drawing a circle, or half circle, with 
rays darting downwards; the earth was represented by rays 
darting upwards; the moon by a crescent. God was also 
represented by a flame,* and a pillar erect, from which 
symbol came our letter I. The sei*pent was one of the most 
remarkable symbols: with his tail in his mouth, he repre- 
sented eternity, the planetary orbits, the line of perfection 
or beauty; twined around the dial of time, he symbolized 
time enfolded in eternity; gliding rapidly along without 
the limbs necessary to other animals, he symbolized the self- 



*It •will thus be seen that when the Pharisees and the 
Ancients worshipped fire, they did not worship the fire, but 
simply used it as a personal symbol, whereby to personify 
God. It is the same with us to-day when we think we must 
have a photograph of a dear friend so that we can remember 
their beloved features the better. See Rosicrucian Fire 
Philosophy. 



I4 8 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

propelling power of deity; his tenacity of life was the 
emblem of health, vitality. Tims Aesculapius,* the father of 
medicine, appears in the heavens as the serpent bearer. 
The numberless scales of the serpent represent the starry 
hosts, and his shrewdness makes him a symbol of wisdom ; 
whilst his speech, viz : a hiss, is the same as the voice of God. 
Thus Moses lifts him up in the wilderness because of his 
vitality, t and Jesus appeals to him as an emblem of wisdom. 
The Egyptians adopted the onion as an emblem of the uni- 
verse or the system of orbits, of which they had a clear con- 
ception. If you take away the outer coating you have an 
onion still ; remove each successive layer and still the onion 
remains; hence they named it On-I-On; the being, the 
almighty, the 'being. To the charge that they worshipped 



*The Egyptians made Aesculapius the third king who 
had applied himself to procuring the preservation of his 
subjects by the study of physics; a symbol that had its 
origin from the preservation of life which was expressed by 
the serpents twisted about the measure of the Nile. Such is 
the origin of the serpent of Epidaurus and the reason for 
which the serpent has always been inseparable from the god 
of physics, to which neither had originally any relation. 

Aesculapius was also sometimes represented either stand- 
ing, or sitting on a throne, holding in one hand a staff, and 
grasping with the other the head of a serpent: at his feet a 
dog lay extended. On some ancient monuments we see him 
with one hand applied to his beard, and having in the other 
a knotted staff encircled by a serpent. 

The dog-star had three distinct names. Anubis. the 
Barker, the giver of advice, or Tahaut, the Bog, or 
Aesculapius, the Man-Dog. 

fin all ancient history and throughout the ancient 
mystery, the mystery of the serpent is the greatest of them 
all. Moses, the Egyptian initiate, tried to teach this 
mystery to all the people and with no other result than that 
they all, Aaron included, fell into idolatry, or the worship 
of the symbol, instead of following the inner mystery. It is 
this mystery which is still retained by the successors of the 
Essenian Brotherhood and the Brotherhood of Osiris, 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 149 

the onion, we reply that they only used it as a symbol of the 
universe and the deity. 

a. The history of the Sun-God, the worship of the powers 
of nature, the trials, discipline, probationary states, purifi- 
cation of the human soul and its ultimate restoration to 
deity, were the doctrines taught through sublime representa- 
tions, in the ancient mysteries of Isis and Osiris, to obtain 
a complete knowledge of which, there is no doubt but that 
many lives were lost. The complete or highest initiation 
was limited to the kings and priests, and the latter, accord- 
ing to their worthiness and different grades of rank, were 
instructed in all that appertained to the subject. The rite 
of circumcision was an absolute prerequisite to initiation,* 
hence foreigners, who, having arrived at adult age, when 
this right might, as it often did, prove fatal, feared to en- 
counter its hazards, and were seldom admitted to the 
mysteries and this is why not many of the ancient historians 
knew much of these mysteries. The rite of circumcision 
was symbolized by a circle (the serpent with its tail in its 
mouth, vitality), and the Egyptian priests wore a conse- 
crated ring in memory of its performance. 

b. The Triceps Hecate, which was at the same time the 
earth, the moon, and the wife of Pluto, and the symbolizing 
of this was : So soon as the first phase of the new moon was 
perceived in (the evening, ministers for that purpose went 
and proclaimed it in all the crossways and public places, 
and the feast of the neomenia was celebrated either that 
very evening or the next day, according to the institution 



*From time immemorial, all aspirants to the Egyptian 
initiation had to be circumcised. Moses, upon entering the 
temple to undergo this initiation had to go through this 
same rite. The Hebrews did not have this law until after 
the leadership of Moses and it was after the mysteries 
taught him in the temple that he ordered all Hebrews to be 
circumcised. The Egyptians followed this rite long cen- 
turies before the Hebrews became a nation and it was there- 
fore not peculiar to the latter. 



150 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

of the place. When the sacrifice was >to be made at night, 
they put an owl near the figure that proclaimed it. The 
Isis was then called Lilith, that is, the owl ; and this visibly 
is the origin of that nocturnal lilith of whom so man} 7 tales 
are told. When the time came that the deified Isis was 
looked upon as a woman, or a queen dwelling in the moon, 
and there governing the heaven in conjunction with Osiris 
or Adonis, the proclamation of the return of the new moon, 
which was a thing extremely plain before, assumed a more 
mysterious and stately air. Hecate was become invisible for 
many days; her return was expected with ceremony. The 
goddess at last left the empire of the dead, to come again to 
the heavens. Hecate never failing to visit successively the 
two districts, it could not be doubted but she ruled in 
heaven and in the invisible abodes. On the other hand, the 
ancients could not but be sensible of the palpable relation 
she had to the earth and its productions, whereof she always 
bore the several marks either on her head or in her hands. 
She then became the threefold Diana (triceps Hecate) 
which is at once and the same time, the earth, the queen, 
the governess, the common mother, the queen of heaven and 
earth.* 

"There were three most important symbols connected 
with the onion, viz : I. A. 0., representing God in his three- 
fold character of wisdom, strength, and beauty.t The letter 
I, or rather an erect pillar,* denotes the wisdom that stands 
alone and se£/-existing; the letter A is the pyramid or the 



*Meaning of these in modern church symbolism is "Holy 
Mary — Holy Mother of God — Mother most amiable — Gate 
of Heaven — Queen of all Saints, and other names known to 
the Roman Church." 

'tThe three pillars of modern Masonry which it will be 
seen had their foundation upon the Egyptian symbolism. 

$Here again we have the symbol of the rod of Moses, the 
ever recurring Phallas, the Pillar of Flame. All these 
symbolical meanings are inter-changeable and in order to 
thoroughly understand one meaning we must understand 
the other meanings also. 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. I5I 

mountain denoting strength; the O is the serpent with his 
tail in his mouth, the emblem of beauty, of wisdom, of 
vitality and of eternity. On this mode of expressing ideas 
is based the doctrine of correspondence, and this furnishes 
the key to all the doctrines taught in the Bible. 

"Io or Iao is the root of all the names of God in the 
various nations of olden times; these three letters formed 
the grand omnific word, unpronounceable by the Hebrews, 
and only communicated to the initiated* in the ancient 
secret societies. After an alphabet was invented the names 
of God were spelled by words, the grand omnific word was 
spelled with three syllables, viz : Ad-On-Es, or Jah-Bel-On, 
etc. How, when, or where the idea of a trinity t originated 
is not clear, but we find among the earliest religious ideas 
the notions that wisdom, the father, devised; strength, the 
son, executed or created; and the divine afflatus or breath 
beautified. Our alphabet is the first, and probably the only 
one, that is based upon this ancient symbolical system. All 
the letters are made up from these two forms, the straight 
line and the circle, or perhaps more properly speaking, the 
perpendicular, the pyramidal, and the circle. The A is the 
pyramid; the B is the perpendicular and two semi-circles; 
the C the circle, etc. If there be any departures from the 
rule, they are but slight and may be traced to modern inno- 
vations. Iao is the root of Jo-pater or Jupiter, and of 
Jahovah of the Israelites. Sometimes Iao was spelled Jac, 
the "c" representing the serpent partially coiled. lac is 

This is still continued at the present day in the two great 
Orders which are the successors of the Essenian and 
Egyptian Fraternities. 

tBoth the Talmud and the Caballa says that : ' ' God is a 
Trinity," which is to say: Light, Spirit, and Life. His 
first emanations are also triune, namely, En Soph, the 
masculine of Infinity; Sophia, the feminine of Wisdom and 
the Word, the divine activity proceeding from the union of 
the two. A third triad of principles is indicated, namely : 
Matter, the formative mould; Life, the active principle of 
f ormation ; and Soul, the eternal and infinite form of spirit. 



152 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

the root of Iacus or Bachus. The word On, the Egyptian 
name for the one God, includes the circle, the pyramid, and 
the obelisk, or I, as does also the word Baal, the Chaldean 
name of God. In the sun we have the symbolical circle ; in 
the fire (bonfire), we have the pyramid; in the radiations 
from both we have the straight line, symbolized by the 
pillar, obelisk, spire and the letter I. 

"As soon as the system of sun worship was perfected., or. 
possibly earlier, the cross became a symbol of salvation. 
This was because the sun, in crossing the equator in the 
vernal equinox, brought salvation from perpetual winter, 
and consequent starvation and cold. One of the earliest 
symbols consisted in a cross with the lamb at the foot, with 
the five bleeding wounds* that the five kings, or wintry 
months, had made. This cross was the saltier cross on 
which St. Andrew was crucified, represented by the angle 
of twenty-three and a half degrees, formed by the ecliptic 
and equator. The symbol of the Roman cross was Egyptic, 
and w r as to them the symbol of salvation because it was 
erected on the banks of the Nile to measure the flood. When 
the waters reached the cross-piece they were high enough to 
flood the whole country, and the land was saved from 
famine. In symbolizing the fruitful season, which itself 
became the symbol of heaven, the ancients adopted those 
forms in nature and art that expressed most clearly the 
generating forces. These forces became the most effective 
at or about the time of the vernal equinox, and there must 
of necessity be a regeneration of nature every spring and a 
new birth into the kingdom of summer. 

This is the outer symbol of the ancient people, but above 
or within this outer symbol, was the mystery of man's re- 
generation which also had to take place before he could be 



*From this all scholars will see that the Christian cruci- 
fixion was nothing new to that period but that the legend, 
in all respects the same, was known thousands of years be- 
fore. The story of the crucifixion of Jesus was therefore 
patterned after this ancient symbolism. 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 1 53 

born immortally into another season. Man's life upon earth 
was reckoned as one season and during that season he had 
to become, prepared, which was symbolized in the true in- 
itiation, for the coming life. As the reproductive faculties 
had to do with generation, so were and are they the keys 
to the sublime re-generation and there was thus the inner 
and the outer meaning, of which Christendom has only re- 
tained the outer. This will explain much which has hither- 
to seemed so obscure. 

Vegetation, must be born again and again, each year, or 
eternal death would reign triumphant throughout the uni- 
verse. To symbolize this regeneration and new birth tha 
most appropriate emblems were adopted; some of them, 
and particularly those most forcible in their adaptness to 
the subject, are of the kind which seem repulsive to the 
modern ideas of modesty because the moderns have lost the 
very keys to the mystery, to the "born again" to Re- 
generation and to all that pertains to immortality. In 
olden times, men did not behold or talk about certain of 
nature's creations with the same unhallowed thoughts as do 
the modern peoples for the very reason that they knew that 
not only generation was the power of these emblems but that 
the sublime power of re-generation was in them as well. All 
ancient books are proof of this assertion; the Bible itself 
containing many, according to our modern modesty, al- 
lusions that we must needs suppress while reading in an 
audience of both sexes. The principal symbol, as already 
explained, with which ancient religion and science marked 
the entrance of the sun into the kingdom of summer was the 
Phallus of India and Egypt, and which has so shocked the 
sensibilities of our modest Christian missionaries, although 
the same emblems are perpetuated in a modified form 
among us to this day and although the modern Christian 
people are the greatest Phallic worshippers, in its outer 
form, of any people who have ever lived. These symbols 
were, as explained, the organs of generation, fit emblems of 
fruitfulness, forcible in their teachings, but too rude for 



154 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

the age which are its greatest worshippers in the more gross 
form'. And yet, these same symbols are retained in the form 
of the Roman cross, the May pole, the serpent and several 
of the Masonic emblems. Consistency, truly thou art a 
jewel. The serpent taught the same doctrine as the cross, 
but under a veil. If worshipped as at present, it is the 
serpent of all the ancient nations, it is the serpent of the 
Egyptian Magi, which was swallowed by the divine serpent 
of Moses which is represented by the cross. In other words, 
the symbol as worshipped at the present day by nearly all 
peoples except the initiates, is still the symbol of generation 
and the lower stage — passion — it represents and is therefore 
an emblem of the old serpent or death. But, if worshipped 
as the ancients taught, it becomes an emblem of future life, 
immortality, vitality, re-generation, and is the serpent 
which Moses lifted up in the wilderness. This should be 
plain enough to all students, for he who cannot understand 
this must be blind. 

"Another of the emblems of fruitfulness was the egg, 
and the bull breaking the egg became a widespread symbol 
of the creation. Long hair and beard was an emblem of 
fruitfulness or strength, corresponding to the sun's rays; 
hence the sun in winter was represented by a bald headed 
man, of which Elisha was an example. In the wintry con- 
stellations we find the symbols or' signs of evil import. This 
part of the heavens was represented as a cave, an emblem 
of the lower region ; hence King David was in a cave in his 
adversity. But in this cave we find the goat (a) because the 
new born year must have a nurse. Here, too, we have the 
baptizer, flooding the earth with the liquid element, and the 
fishes of February, all signs of evil import, and all belonging 
to the ancient bottomless pit. ' ' 

a. According to an ancient Sabean tradition, one of these 
evil angels, symbolized by the goat of December, repented 
him of the wrong done to the sinless God who was crucified 
with him (one of the thieves), hence he becomes at first the 
hoary sign of winter, the goat, who participates in the death 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. I55 

of the beloved Sun, and then the friend of the dying God, 
sheltering him in his manger, and protecting the fruitful 
Virgin in her hour of parturition. This phase of the legend 
reconciles the antagonistic characteristics of the wintry 
sign, during which the sun is lost, with the favorable aspect 
of the same constellation in the last part of his month of 
power, when he is represented as ushering the new-born 
God into being, under the title of the renewer of life. 

In the paraphrase of the Christian history of the Sun- 
God, the writers represent one of the thieves crucified with 
the Saviour of mankind as becoming penitent at the last 
dread hour of death— Jesus, in allusion of his approaching 
•new birth, is made to answer him, "To-day shalt thou be 
with me in Paradise. ' ' This was an ingenious mode of dis- 
posing of the difficulty which ancient astronomers experi- 
enced in representing the constellation of December at once 
antagonistic and favorable to the dying God, but the fathers 
were able to accomplish it. The Capricorn of winter shares 
the sun-god's evil fate, but becomes favorable to him in the 
hour of his new birth in "Paradise." 

The Sun of righteousness is now to be re-born in the 
stable of the Goat, through the maternity of the immaculate 
Virgin, and thus the light of the world, the Lamb of Spring, 
the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the good master of the 
twelve Zodiacal Apostles, is ever sacrificed, that he may 
take away the sins of the world, and ever restored to life, 
that all may have hope of immortality of his resurrection. 
This is the symbolical explanation, but this is only the outer 
shell of a mystery through which all men must go in order 
to reach immortality. The life of Jesus shows the life of 
all men who would be immortal, and the sun myth repre- 
sents the same thing. 



Chapter III. 

"All religions worthy of the name, including the various 
ancient sects, have a comm«-. 1 origin (a) and are a common 
brotherhood, differing only in some external features, and 
can all be traced back, through their various forms, cere- 
monies and symbols, to the remotest antiquity, to a common 
ancestry. By following up the streams to a common source, 
we have been enabled to grasp the mystic key that unlocks 
the labyrinth, in which the various sects have performed 
their mysterious ceremonies, and which the hierophants 
(priests or masters) of every age have concocted their theo- 
logical riddles, and within the sacred walls of which they 
have hidden themselves from the observation of the vulgar 
throng who had to have symbolisms and ceremonies as the 
sublime theory of the one God was too simple for them. 

a. The more we pursue the wisdom of the ancients, 
through all their ramifications of varied speech, allegorical 
forms, and symbolic representation, the more surely we shall 
come to the conclusion that they all are tributary branches 
from one central source; that this source was the book of 
nature, written over with flowers and bloom on the fair 
green earth, with suns and stars in the spangled 
vaults of heaven — that the great 'Schoolmaster, who first 
instructed men and angels in the letters of this divine alpha- 
bet, was the one God, the Father of Spirits ; that the means 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 1 57 

of teaching were intuition, inspiration, and direct com- 
munion with angels, the messengers of God; magic, as the 
artificer of a new form of communion, when the child-like 
early man lost the power of intuition, and broke the links 
of direct communion, by the corruptions of a materialistic 
civilization, and all means combined, when the pure heart 
and the clear brain can elevate the soul to its native heavens, 
and learn to master the occult forces of nature by science. 
Perhaps we may never return to the simple and child-like 
attitude which the early men of the earth sustained towards 
their God, but the few of us can, through the initiation, 
hold converse with our God. 

They (the ancients) conversed with their tutelary spirits 
as a man speaks with his friend. They looked, and saw that 
God ivas. They listened, and God's angels spoke to them in 
voices as clear as the sighing of the breeze or the murmur- 
ing of the brook. They reflected, and their past spiritual 
origin and present destiny cast their images on the mirror 
of their minds as truthfully as the liquid waters of the lake 
of a devotional ignorance of the same character with which 
•reflects the lustre of the stars. It was this same secret that 
the true Orders or Priesthood reserved throughout all ages, 
even up to this present day and it was in this same school 
that the Nazarene learned to converse with his God. 

If we would know the course of any stream in all its 
meandcrings, we must follow it to its source; if we would 
study intelligently the history of any race or nation, wo 
must know their origin or at least their early habits. This 
nation furnishes a striking example for all successful his- 
torians of the republic have been compelled to resort to the 
archives of the mother country for the key to unlock the 
sense of the laws, customs, and usages of society in its re- 
publican phase. All ecclesiastical writers, all theologians 
contend, that to fully comprehend the Christian dispensa- 
tion, we must become familiar with the Hebrews. How in- 
complete, how destitute of sense would be much of the New 
Testament were it not for the light thrown upon it by the 



I 5S MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

Old; but this is not all. In order that we may understand 
the Old, we must go to the fountain from whence they, the 
Hebrews, received their laws, customs and usages, and when 
we do that we go back to the ancient religions, both of the 
Egyptians and the other nations and when we do this, then 
do we find, not only the keys to the Old Testament, but to 
the New as well, for all of these are but tiny streams of the 
one great river, which is God Himself. 

''In affirming that all religions have a common origin, we 
mean by the term religion any system of belief or observ- 
ances, or both, that claims to be the worship of God. And 
we conceive these systems to be true or false, just in the 
proportion that they contain the true or false, element of 
real worship. And we believe also that there has never yet 
existed an entirely false system, for such a one could not 
exist for a day. Man's religion has always been an out- 
growth of himself; (a) not all pure, not entirely debased. 
We believe that all founders of new sects of religionists have 
been inspired, and have been urged forward by an intense 
desire to benefit the race ; for all reorganizers have appeared 
on the stage of action when the older systems had become 
effete or decrepit with age. 

a. The reason why all religions are the productions of a 
common parent is, as already stated, because the ancients 
naturally adopted the true symbols, the real representatives 
of God; and while the Church is in the wilderness of 
symbols, she must follow the cue given her by the inspired 
pagan leaders, who have handed them down to her from the 
mystical past. We repeat the affirmation, that the ancients 
adopted the true and natural symbols of God, and the an- 
gelic host. And we most firmly believe that while we per- 
petuate external forms of worship, we should cling to, 
understand and practice the ancient symbolical system. 
From the sun came light, heat and fertility ; when he hid 
his face storms and tempests held their carnival, and deso- 
lation marked their pathway. The stars were the abodes of 
the lesser gods, or were supposed to be his angels or the 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 1 59 

abode of his swift messengers. The attention of men was 
thus early directed to the skies, and by long observation 
they learned that tempests raged more generally when cer- 
tain stars were in the ascendant, and consequently these 
became the stars or signs of evil import. From this be- 
ginning, based upon the fears and hopes of man, came that 
stupendous system that has culminated in this age. 

It must be understood that such was the observation of 
the masses in the ancient times. The priests, through their 
studies, meditation and intuition, knew that beyond all this 
was the inner meaning of these things but the masses, then 
as now, would not accept the simple truths, they must needs 
have symbols to go by, they must needs have a personal 
giant, whom we call God, who, tossed to and fro by all the 
variety of passion that marks the most stormy specimen 
of the human race. This the priests neither believed nor 
taught ; it was the people who took up these forms and wor- 
shipped them. 

"Most natural was it that astronomy and astrology be- 
came the sciences which for many ages absorbed the talent 
of the world. The stars were consulted in all the affairs of 
Church and State, and the movements of the heavenly 
bodies were so clearly defined that in most cases the moderns 
have accepted their discoveries and calculations because of 
their truthfulness. The zodiac of the ancients is still pre- 
served as a guide in astronomical studies; is posted in our 
almanacs ; figures very largely in our Masonic hieroglyphs, 
and ornaments our most splendid temples and churches. 

"These writings in the skies these constellations of the 
ancients, antedating by many ages the oldest works. 'Wihen 
the ruins of mausoleums and cities fail to lead us farther 
back; when we have exhausted the tale that sculptured 
monuments and symbolical hieroglyphs tell, the ancient 
projections of the spheres, and the astronomical systems of 
the ancients, lead us farther into an age far back in the 
annals of time, where the impenetrable gloom in oblivion 



X6o MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

settles down upon the history of man and forbids our 
further progress. 

"After adopting the belief that the sun, moon and stars, 
or the power they represented or symbolized, were so many 
gods, they gradually imbibed the idea that the stars exerted 
a powerful influence for good or evil, although in_a lesser 
degree than the sun and moon. They observed the fact that 
when the sun entered certain clusters of the stars he began 
to lose his warmth, and stern winter, with his attendant 
train of storms and cold, held almost undisputed sway. 
They, therefore, called these clusters or constellations the 
signs of evil import or bad augury, and from these con- 
clusions came the celebrated science of astrology. 

"The character of the Egyptian writing designed to 
signify God was not a simple flame or blaze, as was the 
custom of the fire worshippers in general, but a circle, or 
rather a sun. They added to the cirele or solar globe 
several marks, or attributes, which served to characterize 
so many perfections. To indicate that the Supreme Being 
is the author and preserver of life, they annexed to the circle 
sometimes two points of flame, but more commonly one or 
two serpents. This animal was always among the Egyp- 
tians, a3 in other countries, the symbol of life and health; 
the fiery flying serpent, scorpions and dragons 'being prob- 
ably the only exceptions. It was thus, as stated, that when 
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, the afflicted 
Hebrews understood it to be a sign of health, of preserva- 
tion, of salvation; the mystery to this has already been 
explained. A common ornament in the ancient temples, 
and in the modern gothic churches, to be seen in the win- 
dows of stained glass, consists of a cross entwined by a 
serpent. From the foregoing sketch of the origin of 
symbols among the Egyptians, and the appointment of a 
class of men to preside over and interpret their meaning, 
we have a clue, that if carefully followed, will lead us still 
deeper into the religious mysteries of the ancients. A 
system of yearly observances having been adopted, and a 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 161 

class of men set apart to attend to their ceremonies, the 
interest of this class would naturally lead them to add to 
these forms and ceremonies and make them still more intri- 
cate and hard to be understood ; and having resorted to the 
skies, the home of the gods, how naturally, although im- 
perceptibly, would these observances assume a religious 
phase and resolve themselves into a regular system of wor- 
ship, and the sacerdotal order gradually be accepted as the 
authorized mediators between God and man,* to make 
known to him his duty, and the forms of worship most 
agreeable to deity. Early indeed do we find in the history 
of the ancient world, that this sect of ecclesiastics, or the 
sacerdotal order, had its various ramifications throughout 
the world. From this small beginning, from this company 
of men appointed to watch the rising of the Nile, has arisen 
a class in society that from generation to generation has 
controlled the political and religious destiny of the world. 
From these sprang the various priesthood and religious 
systems that have obtained a lodgment among mankind. 
From them also came the celebrated organization of 
Masonry. These two systems, religion and masonry, have a 
common origin; they can boast a common parentage. One 
represents the theological, and the other the scientific 
thought of man. One is the old school, the other is the new. 
Once, when religion was pure and all men could commune 
with God, they were one, but as man turned away from God 
and let others do his thinking regarding God and his re- 
ligion, this dividing line took place. The key to the 



*This was after man had become more or less material- 
istic and after he could no longer personally commune Avith 
his God. This was his own fault, for selfish desires took the 
time he formerly gave to his God. When a certain class 
acted as mediators between men and God, there was still 
that inner priesthood, the initiates, who reserved the pure 
religion, the faith in the one God. These men have existed 
in all ages, to-day as in the past, and these are the con- 
servators of the pristine religion. 



162 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

mysteries of one, unlocks the secret chambers of the other. 
As these secret organizations extended to and were adopted 
by other nations, the genius of the people, the difference of 
latitude and longitude, the variations in the astronomical 
and atmospheric phenomena, made it necessary to alter, 
modify, and in some cases improve upon the original. In 
the course of time, these differences became more obvious, 
and the reasons for many of the observances were forgotten 
(the mysteries or the spirit of the teachings were lost, only 
the shell or form remaining) amid the convulsions of em- 
pires; and the necessity of the various changes was over- 
looked by the leaders in their zeal to propagate their peculiar 
views ; hence fierce contentions arose among the leaders who 
themselves had lost their secrets, and the common people 
entered heartily into the conflict. The breaches were thus 
widened, and the power by degrees passed into the hands of 
the most ignorant aspirants, although successful conquerors. 
We have, therefore, handed down to us but the fragments 
and husks of a once powerful, widespread, and most mag- 
nificent system of scientific worship. Our present external* 
forms of worship consist of detached fragments of this 
ancient system. 

Thus early in its history was organized an inner and a 
patrician and a plebian department of society; an aris- 
tocracy of learning, consisting of a secret combination of 
men, who had their mysteries and secret teachings hidden 
from the vulgar gaze, and used to perpetuate the mystical 
learning among themselves; while the vulgar herd, kept in 
ignorance by their own leaders and their own negligence, 
looked up to them with awe and veneration. The exercises 
in these secret schools of the prophets consisted in teaching 
the science of astrology and astronomy, and in the training 



*This was true already in the time of Jesus the Nazarene, 
but now as then, there are still several Fraternities who 
contain within themselves all the ancient mysteries in all 
their purity and who continue to teach the few aspirants as 
they were taught in the long ages past. 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 1 63 

and development (a) of their aspirants, and also in the per- 
forming of dramas and tragedies. In these secret conclaves 
originated theatrical representations. In their plays they 
represented the movements of the sun, moon, and the 
planets, each actor personating one of the heavenly bodies, 
and imitating by action and speech the peculiarity of the 
particular luminary that belonged to his part. In process 
of time, plays were written and acted in public for the 
amusement of the masses, and also for the purpose of more 
easily teaching them. From these methods of teaching, 
adopted to convey both knowledge and amusement at the 
same time, resulted the peculiar, flowing style of language 
called the Oriental, in which the speakers indulge freely in 
parables, allegories, figures, mystical allusions, and strange 
movements, or theatrical posturing; all of which naturally 
gave an air of mystery and deep meaning to these exhi- 
bitions of the forensic art, that the moderns scarcely ever 
equal. It was also from these theatrical representations of 
the mysteries that the middle classes, the leaders of the 
masses, took the ceremonies for what are to-day the ritual- 
istic secret societies, including the different branches of 
Masonry. The inner priesthood had nothing to do with 
these for in their great work they were not concerned in this 
except in so far that they prepared the work and left it to 
the lower caste priests, which were of the large middle class, 
to teach the people. These naturally did not know the 
inner and sublime teachings of the priesthood and took these 
reperesentations for the real mysteries, teaching part of the 
people and taking the rest for the formation of the secret 
societies for the class between the masses and the high 
priesthood. 

a. All the true mystics or initiates of the ages exalted the 
practice of abstinence and insisted upon its necessity. Of 
all classes of religious thinkers, the Christians should be the 
most faithful in the observance of this rite, since it was 
charged upOn them both by the example and precept of their 
founder, and prescribed as an essential of spiritual disci- 



164 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

pline or development, both in the Old and the New Testa- 
ments, and yet but one sect, of all the sects of Christianity, 
observe abstinence as a part of their religious duty; and 
perhaps it is to this cause that we may attribute the greater 
prevalence of spiritual manifestations amongst them, than 
with any other religious thinkers of Christendom. Another 
mode of preparatory exercise for spiritual exaltation is 
prayer. Not the mere routine form of verbal solicitation, 
but sincere aspiration of soul towards the great source of all 
life, light and aspiration. And prayer must be supple- 
mented by solitary communion with the inner consciousness, 
in long periods of seclusion from the external world, and a 
complete abstraction of the senses from all outward ob- 
servances; soul musings on the great I Am, and that deep 
absorption of the reflective powers upon the spirit within 
which constitute the triumph of the soul over matter and its 
belongings. Ablution is also another method of preparing 
the physique for the flow of the astral fluid. During the 
intervals of fasting, the food should be very light, consist- 
ing chiefly of vegetables, of fruit, no meats or flesh what- 
ever, whilst all stimulants or salacious substances calculated 
to excite the sense or pamper the appetites, should be care- 
fully avoided. This was the method of preparation of the 
aspirant, and this continued until he kneiv that he was im- 
mortal, until he had found the Christ within, and could 
hold communion with the beings beyond. 

"True to the Oriental style of teaching, Jesus spake in 
parables', and his teachings abound in figures; and the older 
prophets lay down in sackcloth, or rushed in a nude con- 
dition and frenzied manner tli rough' the streets of Jerusa- 
lem, in order to impress upon a stupid race the near ap- 
proach of some dire calamity. The field of study in these 
middle-class societies was somewhat circumscribed at first, 
but gradually expanded into theology, astrology, necro- 
mancy, magic, and the kindred arts. The peculiar facili- 
ties afforded to these teachers by the governments and 
people, enabled them to monopolize every department of 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 465 

science, and the most stringent laws were enacted to protect 
them in the exercise of these powers. One faculty de- 
veloped in man in the earliest ages, and guarded with 
special care, was the faculty of second sight, or the power 
of revealing secrets, vulgarly called fortune telling. If a 
man possessed this power, his interest and safety required 
him to join these privileged societies, consequently/ they 
monopolized the department of prophecy, and he who pos- 
sessed this power, and would not, or perhaps from mal- 
formation, or some other cause, could not join these so- 
cieties, was doomed to speedy destruction as a wizard if he 
dared to exercise his peculiar power. 

Female prophets were not admitted among these societies, 
for from the nature of the initiatory rites (note Masonry) 
it was impossible to accept them. There were some female 
seers, however, in all nations, who were so clearly and unde- 
niably inspired, that they were recognized as such and either 
taken under the protection of the inner priesthood or 
treated as witches by the societies and persecuted to the 
death. The priesthood often employed them in their temples 
as Pythonesses, and as keepers of the holy places. Among 
the Hebrews, but few women were allowed to prophesy, and 
witches — so-called — were hardly dealt with. 

''After we have mastered the external arrangements of 
these ancient mysteries, that have encompassed the world 
with their huge proportions, we shall be prepared to under- 
stand its more subtle teachings, and thus by degrees obtain 
a clearer insight into the learned past. 

"With this key to unlock their mysteries, the Bible and 
other ancient religious books, and the histories and poetic 
effusions of the ancients, will be read with increased de- 
light; dark passages will be made plain; numerous tales, 
fables, allegories and riddles, which we have been taught to 
consider as childish tales, will reveal to us a depth of mean- 
ing most surprising; and ancient literature will appear to 
us as newly discovered palaces and monuments, to the en- 
thusiastic antiquarians, awakening us to the delights of an 



1 66 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

entire new field of investigation. 

"In our researches into this subject of ancient religion, 
and among these antique mysteries, we must bear in mind 
that the sun was (to the masses) the grand central point, 
around which all the lesser objects of wonder and worship 
revolved, and to which the fathers paid their devotions. 
The sun was the hero of the tale in all their plays and cele- 
brations, and their dramas represented him in his various 
phases, and celebrated his battles, defeats and victories. 
The sun (the one God to the Initiates) was emphatically 
the God of all ancient nations. He, or it, to the people, was 
the father God, while around him, and to a certain extent 
independent of him, his spouse the moon, and the inferior 
gods, performed their appropriate offices. 

"Ovid, the poet, describes him thus: 

' ' The god sits high, exalted on a throne 
Of blazing gems, with purple garments on ; 
The hours, in order rang'd on either hand, 
And days, and months, and years, and ages stand ; 
Here Spring appears, with flow'ry ehaplets bound; 
Here Summer, in her wheaten garlands crown 'd; 
Here Autumn the rich trodden grapes besmear ; 
And hoary Winter shivers in the rear. ' ' 



Chapter IV. 

The really devotional, in every age, acknowledged and 
worshipped an all-pervading intelligence, whom they called 
God; and a number of sects, through the ages, arose who 
rejected all external symbols of this Deity ; but we are at- 
tempting to show whence came our creeds and external 
forms of religion, and it is principally within the scope of 
this work to deal with these external manifestations of the 
religious thought of olden time. Eecognizing, however, 
throughout the entirety of our work, those mighty fraterni- 
ties and priesthood throughout all ages who recognized the 
one God, who lived but to do good to their fellow-men and 
who knew and taught that man must find the Christ within 
himself if he would be like unto the "Son of God." 

"The moderns accuse the ancients of worshipping gods 
who were sensual, as, for instance, the Bacchis worship, be- 
cause the histories of their deities celebrate their amours 
with the daughters of men, as well as with the gpddesses 
that peopled the sky, or inhabited the earth. In like man- 
ner, the infidels taunt the Christians with the licentiousness 
of the favorites of God among his chosen people; while the 
advocates of the Jewish religion sustain the inspiration of 
the Bible, on the assumption that its fairness in recording 
the sins of God's people as well as their virtues, proves its 
divine origin; forgetting that the same argument will hold 



1C 8 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

good in heathen writings, for they too record the vices of 
their gods and heroes. An understanding of these ancient 
mysteries explains to us the real nature of these supposed 
amours, and why both the Jewish and ancient writers thus 
recorded them. These various amours of the gods, as al- 
ready partially explained, and of the patriarchs, and 
prophets, were thus written to describe the yearly travels of 
god (the sun), and his conjunction with the hosts of heaven 
— that is, the moon, the planets, and the constellations or 
fixed stars; while the results of these conjunctions were, 
when stripped of their mysterious covering, merely the 
varied fruits of the teeming earth, the pretended results of 
these conjunctions in the summer signs. The Jews, in re- 
jecting the polytheism of the Egyptians, substituted the 
names of supposed and real great men in the place of the 
gods and demi-gods of the so-called idolators, and ascribed 
to them the same peculiarities that marked the lives of the 
ancient deities. Thus, in Noah's drunkenness, in Lot's in- 
cest, Abraham's illicit intercourse, David's and Solomon's 
polygamy and concubinage, we have reproduced in mystery 
the licentiousness of the ancient gods, but in this case it is 
even worse, for these men did live and what makes it even 
still worse is the fact that these men were truly priests or 
initiates and therefore, according to Christ, the 'sons of 
God'- and to make men, who really lived and were the 
prophets or the 'sons' of God do these things was far 
worse than for the pagan gods, who simply represented con- 
stellations, to be supposed to do these things. 

"The trinity of evils that threatened the destruction of 
man and his works, consisted of the cold of winter, the heat 
of summer, and the floods. These, in the Hebrew scriptures, 
were personified in Cain. His first, as winter (speaking 
allegorically), destroyed summer, personified by Ab-el (Ab, 
father; el, sun) ; in the flood he drowned the world, and 
with intense heat threatens to burn up the earth at some 
future, unknown period. Noah represented Bacchus (the 
sun) drunk with the vintage that his own heat had pro- 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 1 69 

duced; Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, were personifi- 
cations of the sun in the two seasons of summer and winter, 
or in the signs of good and evil import; and David and 
Solomon had imputed to them by their biographers, the in- 
tercourse of the sun with the starry hosts in his yearly 
passage through the constellation. It was thus very true 
that Solomon had 365 wives and that all wisdom was his 
for did he not know, or learn all that was to be learned in 
all the days? From these ancient mysticisms, after their 
real meaning was in some measure lost, originated the 
system of polygamy that has for ages blasted the eastern 
nations with its pestiferous breath. It must be borne in 
mind, especially by the student, that none of the biogra- 
phies of these men, beings, we should say, was written by 
either a true priest or initiate but always by a self-appointed 
one or one of the middle class who posed as the leaders of 
the people. 

"The true sages of antiquity fully understood the real 
sense of these allegories; but when the Jews became semi- 
barbarous, as they did soon after the death of Joshua, and 
again when they sank into the grossest idolatry under the 
rule of the pagan kings, they lost their real meaning, and 
supposed that their ancestors, even the best of them, had a 
plurality of wives; but the notion was thus propagated, and 
the whole system had its origin in this style of celebrating 
the sun's annual journey. 

"The grand central point of Oriental worship, of ancient 
literature, of the arts and science of past ages, was the sun ; 
to him thej'' looked as to a mighty friend ; and all those con- 
stellations through which he passed in his summer tour 
were his angels, his followers, his friends; while those 
wintry signs which seemed to be dragging him down to the 
bottomless pit in the southern hemisphere, were signs of 
evil import, were enemies, were the satellites of Satan, who 
had his domicile in Scorpio, at the gate of winter. They 
looked upon the sun as their saviour, and with reason too, 
for when the earth was flooded by excessive rains, or inun- 



170 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

elated by the swelling river, his beams dried up the super- 
abundant moisture ; when malignant vapors, which so often 
succeeded the retiring of the waters, created a pestilence, he 
seemed to pity the misfortunes of the sufferers, and dissi- 
pated the vapors; and when rude winter had reigned with 
such rigid sway that the fruits of the earth were well nigh 
exhausted, and even the last of the flock and herds had 
almost disappeared to satisfy the demands of hunger; the 
sun, coming forth in majesty from his travels in a far off 
southern clime, puts winter to flight, and ushers in the 
genial spring, with its sunny hours, its fruits and flowers; 
and summer, too, laden with luxuriant crops; followed by 
golden autumn, when the harvest having been safely gar- 
nered, the vintage is gathered, the wine press is trodden 
without the city, 

And the glad nations 
Pour out their libations 
And sing praise to the sun 
When their labors are done. 

And with the flowing wine celebrate the feast of Bacchus, 
the crown feast of the year, among all the ancient nations.a 

a. We would like to give a description of the ceremonies 
of initiation into the mysteries of Bacchus, but space for- 
bids. We will, however, give the important points, and if 
the student can read between the lines he will learn to know 
the true character of Bacchus. 

Bacchus originally represented the sun, Osiris. He was 
known as the God of Wine. But if you know what he really 
is, you will also know that this wine is not the fermented 
juice of grapes, but that he produces a wine rich in color, a 
drop of which is able to heal the worst of diseases and re- 
generate the human body. 

The place of initiation was a gloomy cave or rather a 
connected range of caverns, fitted up with machinery and 
paraphernalia that might display, with full effect, all the 
terrors of the initiation. 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 17I 

The place of initiation in Greece was called the Nypheum 
and is thus briefly described by Homer : 

"High at the head of branching olive grows, 
And crowns the pointed cliffs with shady boughs, 
Beneath a gloomy grotto's cool recess, 
Delight the Nereids of the neighboring seas ; 
Where bowls and urns were formed of living stone, 
And massy beams in native marble shown : 
On which the labors of the Nymphs were roll 'd, 
Their webs divine of purple mixed with gold, 
Within the cave the clust'ring bees attend 
Their waxen works, or from the roof depend. 
Perpetual waters o'er the pavement glide; 
Two marble doors unfold on either side ; 
Sacred the south, by which the gods descend; 
But mortals enter at the northern end. ' ' 

The initiation commenced with incantations and the con- 
secration of an egg to commemorate equally the creation of 
all things, which were traditionally believed to have sprung 
from an egg formed by the deity; and the renovation of 
mankind by the great Father. 

The Neophyte was first purified with water, and then 
crowned with myrtle; he was then invested with sacred 
habiliments and placed in a dark cave for meditation. After 
a time his conductor delivered him over to the mystagogue 
who commenced the real initiation with the formula "De- 
part hence, all ye profane." His guide exhorted him to 
call forth all his courage and fortitude, as the process on 
which he was now about to enter was of the most appalling 
nature. For three days and nights he was kept in a state 
of horrible apprehension and darkness. Following this the 
aspirant, being now thoroughly excited, was made to per- 
form the aphanism, or ceremonies commemorative of the 
mystical death of Bacchus. He was covered with the 
pastos or bed ; or in other words, he was confined in a close 
cell, or a coffinlike place, that he might reflect seriously, in 
solitude and darkness on the business he was engaged in, 
and be reduced to a proper state of mind for the reception 
of sublime and mysterious truths. This was the symbolic 



173 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

death of the mysteries; and the deliverance from confine- 
ment was the act of regeneration or new birth. 

The hymns of incantation are too long for our quotation ; 
the beginning of the first has been handed down to us: 

"0 Father Jacchos (Bacchus) ; thou art Lord of the body, 
God manifest in the flesh; 

Twice-born, baptized with fire, quickened by the spirit, in- 
structed in secret things beneath the earth," etc., etc. 

Most of our Christian writers on this subject use all of 
the so-called pagan symbols and deducting therefrom their 
moral teachings, they claim that in all mythical literature, 
in the zodiacal signs and in the hieroglyphs they see the 
prophecy of the Saviour, the Redeemer of mankind — Christ. 
Yet they are unwilling to give due credit to the ancients for 
seeing the same illuminated teachings. These Christians 
say that the pagan religions are foul, but when purged of 
their vile and offensive ideas they become beacon lights for 
the Christian pilgrims. O bigotry and shame. It is very 
gratifying to find a writer who clearly saw the sublime 
truth in the "heathen teachings." 

"We will quote from "Upa Sastra," an inspired book, now 
out of print, by J. D. Iiawken. 

"It is recorded in the Bible, that certain waterpots were 
filled with water, and that, on drawing it off, it was found 
to be wine. How came this 1 Why simply thus, — the life, 
or water, of any particular sphere, which has been elevated 
through the process of judgment, or marriage-union with 
the heavens, has become thereby the sap of the vine or life- 
tree of heaven. The elaborated sap is the "blood of the 
grape." This, when diffused upon planes below the di- 
viding line, is to them wine ; just so is the water poured in 
at the top of the vessel wine on that plane where it is drawn 
off. Wine, thus represents the normal life of heaven, as 
water the normal life of earth ; but it is wine in that it is 
the life of heavenly planes diffused undiluted upon earthly 
ones. The water of one plane is wine to the other. When- 
ever we read in mythic literature of wine or drunkenness, it 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 1 73 

means that a spirituous life is diffused, differing from the 
normal life of the recipient, as wine differs from water. . . . 
It is at a marriage that this diffusion from the waterpots 
takes place; for it is at such a union that life is poured out 
and transmitted as procreated germinal forms, or offspring. 
The fruit of the wine of heaven is Bacchus, the berry, or 
grape, the god of wine, etc. Upa Sastra." 

In the Christian theogony the Holy Ghost is the life- 
giver. This is Bacchus. They are identical. 

Christ says: I am the vine, you are the branches, and 
Bacchus is the god of vine, or the life-giver. 

''When on his southern tour the sun receded farther and 
farther from the northern climes, the people mourned his 
absence, and fearful lest he should forget to return, they 
celebrated his descending phase with appropriate cere- 
monies, and wept, over the dangers that beset his pathway 
in his conflict with Typhon, who possibly might conquer 
and drag him downward into the bottomless pit and leave 
the world in darkness; for the war in heaven was so nearly 
balanced, and the power of the contending gods so nearly 
equal, that the inhabitants of earth watched the conflict 
with all absorbing interest. When, however, the sun, vic- 
torious over his antagonist, began to ascend toward the 
north, and escaped the pit toward which for months 
he had been descending, they celebrated his return with the 
wildest expressions of delight; with feasting and dancing, 
processions, bonfires and orations, and all the paraphernalia 
of gorgeous eastern worship, and with ebullitions of greatest 
glee, worthy of the carnival of Rome in its palmiest days. 
As the sun, in his upward career toward the summer 
solstice, arrived at different points in the heavens, his 
journeyings were celebrated with an eclat suited to the im- 
portance of each particular point at which he was supposed 
to pause for a brief period. The most important points in 
the sun's line of march, were the vernal and autumnal 
equinoxes, representing the two crossifications where the 



174 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

sun gives his blood or life for the world j* the vernal repre- 
senting the first, or the covenant of works, in which, accord- 
ing to promise, if men plough and sow they shall reap ; the 
autumnal representing the covenant of grace, when they 
shout the vintage home with great rejoicing. The feast. of 
Bacchus, at the autumnal equinox, was celebrated at the 
same time and in the same manner as was the feast of 
tabernacles among the Jews. The feast and fasts now cele- 
brated in the churches, the meaning and intent of which 
they have lost,* were thus originally purely astronomical 
and agricultural. This system threw a romance around the 
cultivation of the soil, that assisted to endear this pursuit to 
the masses, and deeply impressed upon their minds the 
importance of fully developing the resources of mother 
earth. When we moderns more fully understand our 
nature and our best interests, we shall return, in some 
measure at least, to this most rational method of relaxation 
and recreation, and in our feasts and celebrations those 
pursuits will be immortalized which are world-wide in im- 
portance, and not those which are confined to a religious 
seet or political party. 

"The advent of spring, the ushering in of that season 
when the winter is over and gone ; when the singing of bird3 
has come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in the land; 
when the sun has overcome the frosts of winter, and under 
the influence of his genial rays, vegetation touched as by a 
magic wand, everywhere covers the earth with a luxuriant 

*It will be seen from this that the whole life of Jesus has 
been, by his biographers, who did not understand him or his 
teachings, modeled after the Sun-God of the Egyptians. 
No consideration is taken of the time of year when Jesus 
was really born, all this is set aside in order to make it con- 
form to the Egyptian sun legend. 

* There is very little left of this once famous celebration. 
All that we have at this day is the Harvest Home services. 
Many of our churches still uphold this and this is only the 
modern and spiritless form of the Bacchic celebration of 
the ancients. 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 175 

carpeting, and gives promise of a most bounteous harvest ; 
and again, when in answer to well bestowed labor, the earth 
pours her golden treasure into the lap of industry, how ap- 
propriate for man to rest a brief season and celebrate the 
ingathering of the treasures of food that shall save him 
from want and starvation. Thus by degrees will men come 
to feel one common interest, and the art of agriculture, 
whence most of our wealth is derived, will rise in dignity 
and importance,* and this noblest of all pursuits be rescued 
from the sacrilegious touch of serfdom, and be exalted in 
human estimation to that divine pursuit, the favorite of the 
God, that shall no longer be prostituted to merely mercenary 
purposes; but man, with that enthusiasm that alone can 
awaken in the religious breast, will commence earnestly in a 
truly gospel spirit, to multiply and replenish the earth, and 
with the increased facilities that science affords, will culti- 
vate this terrestrial Eden ; drain its morasses, and reclaim 
its waste places; will make the wilderness and solitary 
places glad, and the desert bud and blossom as the rose. 
Then, and not until then, will this earth be a fit abode for 
the spirits of the just, and the lion and the lamb lie down 
together. 

. "In the maps of the heavens now in use in most high 
schools throughout Christendom, we have represented an 
outline of the kingdom of heaven of the ancients, both Jews 
and pagans. There we have delineated the war in heaven, 
that Milton tells us occurred ere man was created. The 
constellations constitute the gods and the demi-gods of all 

*Unless something of the kind takes place there will be 
much suffering throughout the world, for everywhere, the 
people who have lived in the country are flocking into the 
cities and the rural districts are becoming depopulated, 
while the cities are becoming overpopulated. There is 
dignity in this labor, and Count Leo Tolstoy, one of the 
greatest writers of the modern world, has, for years, given 
half of his time to farm work. "When men recognize the 
beauty of the land and that it is "God's home" there will 
be the old and glorious cry : "back to the land." 



I76 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

the ancient nations; the sacred Bull of Egypt; the Fish- 
god of India, the twelve Baals of Chaldea, Phoenicia, and 
the pagan clans who were ejected by the Jews from the 
land of promise. In those constellations we see the various 
deities of the fire worshippers, including the Devil; Her- 
cules and his compeers of Greek mythology ; the Lion of the 
tribe Judah; the cherubim of Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel and 
Daniel ; the seraphs or seraphim seen by the prophets ; and 
the four beasts that John saw around and in the midst of 
the great white throne. There we see also the twelve tribes 
of Israel ; the twelve foundations of the New Jerusalem ; the 
twelve gates of the city; and all the twelves that have for 
ages been tortured in a perfect number. There we have 
also exhibited the seven golden candlesticks; the seven 
stars ; the seven seals ; the seven vials of wrath, and all the 
beasts and fallen spirits, that made such havoc in heaven 
and on earth, as recorded in the apocalypse. 

There is also exhibited the whole menagerie of wild beasts 
and fowls, dragons and creeping things, that the various 
religionists have pressed into their service, with which to 
frighten human kind, and that have furnished bigots with 
material with which to hold their followers in bondage, 
from the earliest form of superstition down to the Ad- 
ventists and Mormons of this age. 

In the famous Rosicrucian diagram of Ezekiel'3 wheel, 
the whole heart of the mystery is solved. Therein will be 
found the six ascending signs of the Zodiac representing 
Heaven, Good, the ascent of the Human Soul, the Universe, 
or Macrocosm ; in the six descending signs are all the oppo- 
site principles of evil; the fall of man; the descent of the 
soul into matter, etc., as before hinted at. It must be re- 
membered by the student that the middle of the seventh 
sign, being neutral, belongs to the six good signs, making 
seven good signs, or the perfect number, and leaving five 
evil signs. These all together make the perfect number of 
twelve. 

"If we desire to fully understand the framework or 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 1 77 

philosophy of this world-wide sj'stem of worship, we must 
consult the remains of Phoenician, Chaldean, Egyptian and 
East Indian literature. The minutiae of ancient sacrificial 
worship is to be found in the Jewish temple service. The 
polytheism of olden times supposed twelve great gods ; they 
being, or residing in the twelve signs of the Zodiac. Those, 
which in our almanacs are called Aries, Taurus, Gemini, 
etc., were by the Baal worshippers called the twelve Baals. 
The following are the names of these, with their meaning in 
English : 

Baal Tsaddi, God Almighty, 

Baal Aitum, The Mighty Lord. 

Baal Geh, Lord of Health. 

Baal Ial (Belial), Lord of the Opposite. 

Baal Zebub, Lord of the Scorpion. 

Baal Berith, Lord of the Covenant. 

Baal Peor, Lord of the Opening. 

Baal Perazim, Lord of the Divisions. 

Baal Zephon, Lord of the North. 

Baal Samen, Lord of Heaven. 

Baal Adoni-Bezek, Lord of Glory. 

Baal Moloch Zedec Lord of Righteousness. 
(Melchisedec), 

"Bel is the Chaldean name for Baal. The Egyptians 
called the constellation On, that being the name of the sun in 
their language ; thus Dag-On, An-On, Gibe-On. The Hebrews 
called the constellations Beths (Houses). They were the 
domiciles of the sun. Bethlehem was the house of bread, or 
the harvest month; Beth-any, the house of destitutioa; 
Beth-Dag-On, the house of the fishes, etc. Dag-On is the 
fish-god of Egypt and India, from which came the legend of 
the mermaid, Dag-On being represented under the form of 
a human being and a fish combined. 

' ' The twelve constellations in the band of the Zodiac, and 
thirty-six north and south, are more ancient than any writ- 
ten record; their origin is unknown, and it is uncertain 
whether the religious notions of the ancients grew out of 
these rude deliniations in the skies, or gave birth to them, 



I78 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

although it is most probable that they are twin sisters and 
grew up together. ' ' 

But this much is certain, that they constitute a most im- 
portant part of all religions, and that Egyptian hieroglyphs, 
Hebrew forms, ceremonies, and prophecies, and Greek and 
Roman poetry, have for their end and aim the celebration 
of the movements of the starry hosts ; their various conflicts, 
and the final victory of the sun and powers of light over the 
powers of cold and darkness. Most of the legends of the 
Indian tribes of America are a description of the formation 
and movements of the constellations and the relations they 
bear to earth. It will thus be seen that these legends were 
known as well as the constellations understood, even before 
the sinking of Atlantis, or in the time when Egypt and 
America were still bound together by land. According to 
the Algic researches, the great northern bear was the pro- 
genitor of all the bears that the great Spirit gave to his 
children, the red men. The following account of the 
Zodiac of the Indians of Southern Mexico and Central 
America was communicated to the author verbally: ."They 
are externally Roman Catholics, but still worship the sun in 
secret after the manner of their ancestors. Their temples 
are excavated in the earth, and their entrances kept secret 
from the pale faces, with most religious care, and most 
horrid penalties are threatened against him who reveals the 
secret. They have in their dwellings, carefully hidden, 
zodiacs carved in stone, and other emblems of sun worship. 
If you talk to them about the cross of Christ, unless fear 
seals their lips, they will answer you somewhat after this 
manner: "Talk not to us about the cross of Christ; it has 
been pricked into our hearts ; it has been burned into our 
flesh; it has been scourged into our backs." And yet the 
cross is a most prominent emblem in their system of sun 
worship. 

"Their zodiac is similar to the Egyptian, but differing in 
some of the constellations (accounted for by the different 
latitude they live in). Instead of the common ox or bull, 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 1 79 

they draw the zebu or Mexican ox. The puma, or South 
American jaguar occupies the place of Leo. The virgin of 
August, the mother of all living, holds in her hands an ear 
of maize or Indian corn, instead of the wheat.* The scor- 
pion gives place to the lizard; the archer sits across the 
shoulders of a lama, his legs clasping around the neck, thus 
apparently forming but one animal; the place of the goat 
of December is occupied by a stable, wherein a lama is feed- 
ing; while the water-bearer, or baptizer, is pouring water 
from a leaf of the water plant, instead of the urn to be seen 
in the common planispheres. In the midst of the circle 
formed by the twelve signs, is a cross, the ends of the hori- 
zontal beam resting on or near the two equinoxes ; over the 
top of the cross the crescent or new moon forms an arch, 
resting on its two points on the crosspiece ; while the puma 
reposes over the top of the whole in the sign of July. Thus, 
while the respective followers of the cross and crescent have 
for centuries been engaged in deadly conflict, these harm- 
less and opposed Aztecs have blended them both into one, 
as did the ancient Atlanteans, even before the Hebrews and 
Egyptians, and all real scientific worshippers." 

The scholar Schoolcraft, in his Algic researches, saj-s: 
"The accounts which the Indians hand down of a remark- 
able personage of miraculous birth, who waged warfare 
with monsters, performed the most extravagant and heroic 
feats, underwent a catastrophe like Jonah's, and survived a 
general deluge, constitute a very prominent portion of their 
cabin lore. Interwoven with these leading traits are in- 
numerable tales of personal achievements, sagacity, en- 
durance, miracles and tricks, which place him in almost 
every scene of deep interest that could be imagined, from 

*It will thus be seen that the peoples of the different 
nations gave the figures of their own animals, or the symbols 
familiar to them to the signs of the zodiac. So that while 
the Suii-G-od was familiar to all, each nation had its own 
symbols for the constellations. This is another proof that 
the religions of all nations came from one source. 



J So MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

the competitor on the Indian playground, to a giant-killer, 
or a mysterious being, of stern, all-knowing, superhuman 
power. Whatever man could do, he could do; he affected 
all the powers of a necromancer; he wielded the arts of a 
demon, and had the ubiquity of a God. Scarcely any two 
persons agree in all the minor circumstances of the story, 
and scarcely any omit the leading traits." 

In describing the actions of this great personage, these 
Indians, like the ancient seers and teachers, were simply, 
describing the actions of the sun upon the earth and the 
conflicts of the elements, and thus giving their version of 
the labors of Hercules. They also, unknowingly, described 
the legendary lives of the different Saviours of the world 
for all those who have been born as Saviours and who have 
changed the religions of the people, as has so often been 
done, had to, and did, go through much of the life as illus- 
trated by these symbols. The birth, the teachings, the in- 
itiation and overcoming of the desires of all that is dear to 
the life of most men, then the teaching and healing of the 
people and' at last the death at the hands of recognized 
authorities of such times and after the death, the taking up 
or resurrection of these ideas and adoption by the people of 
them as a religion, all these are exemplified by the sun- 
worship of all nations. These things therefore had a real 
meaning although this meaning has been but little under- 
stood. 

But in returning to the subject of ancient astronomy^ the 
basis of the legends of all nations, allow Us to repeat the 
remark that this book of the ancients is the oldest history on 
record. It antedates the most enduring and the oldest of 
earth's monuments. The pyramids (a) of Egypt were 
reared long after these hieroglyphs were the text-books of 
the nations. In exploring the ruins of Palmyra, Ninevah 
and Thebes; in disentombing the silent inhabitants of the 
pyramids and other burial places of Egypt and Assyria, 
and translating the records there, they lead us back to the 
time as early as when the twelve Atlantean initiates first 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. l8l 

came to Egypt; and we find that then Egypt was mistress 
of that part of the world, and had conquered many nations, 
enriched her coffers with their tribute; and the constella- 
tions constituting as they did, the kingdom of heaven of the 
ancients, loomed upon the horizon, and looked down from 
their starry seats upon nations already decrepid with age, 
and tottering to their fall; but even then, these nations, in 
their variety of monumental writings, gave no clue to the 
period when these ancient Bibles were put upon record, or 
what authors have thus immortalized their labors, while 
their names have passed into oblivion, except as in the case 
of a few of them. 

a. Those who search Egyptian records to their full depths, 
and can learn above all other examples, to read perfectly 
the meaning of the Great Pyramid, the object in its erec- 
tion, the principles upon which it is built, and the use for 
which it was designed, will understand that man and his 
planet were fashioned in certain proportions represented 
alike in numbers, colors, sounds, forms and uses. Those 
who understand one department of natural science possess 
a key which unlocks the whole. Therefore, this great PjTa- 
mid, built to illustrate the most perfect principles of as- 
tronomy, astrology, mathematics, geometry and ancient in- 
itiation, ought to possess an interest in the eyes of the pro- 
found scholar, which removes it forever from the common- 
place idea that this wonderful structure was erected merely 
as a huge royal sepulchre. The tomb of its founder it un- 
doubtedly became; for, in order to celebrate all the 
mysteries of life and being — the special object for which the 
great Pyramid was built — death must also take its place in 
the pageant, and the stupendous history of the soul's 
progress through the section of eternity embraced by man's 
brief sojourn on this planet, could not be completed, unless 
the angel of death was assigned his niche in the splendid 
shrine. 

It would be impossible, Avithout entering into a labored 
and abstract description, of mathematical principles, and of 



182 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

geometrical measurements, disquisitions which we are as- 
sured would not be acceptable in this work — to explain the 
methods by which the Egyptians obviously arrived at the 
idea, that the entire order of the universe was based on. a 
geometrical figure, and included in a mathematical sum — 
also that in all departments of being this figure would be 
found and this sum would exist. In this work we can but 
vaguely hint at this sublime truth, but whilst a vast mass 
of Egyptian vestiges disclose its prevalence, the great Pyra- 
mid is in itself a complete illustration of the idea. As re- 
gards popular theories concerning the design of this^ vast 
monument, we must premise our own statements of belief by 
acknowledging that the number of wise and learned men 
who have devoted time, talent and indomitable effort to re- 
search in Egyptology, have justly earned the thanks of 
posterity, and the respectful appreciation of all to whom 
their opinions have been rendered, but all these researches 
will not reveal the mystery of these mysteries for these are 
only to be found in the inner sanctuary of their sublime 
initiation. 

The most ancient of students, amongst whom we include 
the Hindoos and Egyptians, taught that there existed 
throughout all being that universal law of correspondence 
to which we must subscribe. 

All Eastern nations attributed the origin of life, light, 
motion and even mind to the action of the spiritual sun, 
symbolized by. the physical orb of day. 

Character, destiny, physical form and external appear- 
ances of all kinds were determined principally by astral as 
well as solar influences. 

Again, it was argued that laws, stern and immutable, 
principles, strict and unvarying, must underlie a scheme in 
which millions of worlds are the actors, yet the whole drama 
is conducted in the most unbroken system of harmony and 
power. To arrive at any just idea of causation, it was be- 
lieved that well defined mathematical quantities and geo- 
metrical proportions must be the underlying principles of 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 183 

tJiis stupendous chain of being, all moving, living, and act- 
ing severally and singly in the most unbroken power and 
perfection. 

Every sound in the universe must conform to the har- 
monic rule, every shade of color must combine to produce 
the totality of pure white light. Every creature must be a 
definite part, everything an organ belonging to the vast 
whole. Fanciful methods of interpreting this gigantic 
scheme by the laws of correspondence must ever remain 
fanciful, unless the keystone was found which should com- 
bine all the separated parts of the grand temple of 
humanity by one mighty arch. This fair white stone would 
be neither oval nor square, yet its perfection would delight 
all eyes, its beauty excite the wonder of all beholders. In 
its mystic proportions would be found the square, the 
triangle, the circle and the line. In its combinations would 
be expressed the truths of astronomy, or the science of 
astral worlds; astrology, or the science which connects the 
sum of worlds with the units, and teaches how the mass 
influences and disposes of the integral parts; mathematics, 
or the science which assigns to each world its number, to 
each component part its unit, sustains to the order, and to 
the whole. And last is the science of geometry, by which 
the universe is mapped out in lines, angles, squares and 
circles, in which all the component parts are arranged in 
just relations to each other, and united together in the 
grand circle of infinity. 

Thus "the stone that the builders reject becomes the head 
of the corner," and for ages the great Pyramid has been 
this rejected stone. 

"Modern astronomers have availed themselves of the 
ancient writings in the skies to facilitate their researches 
among the hosts of heaven. Forty-eight of the constella- 
tions now in use are ancient ; the others have been added at 
different periods by the moderns. The conversation of the 
astrological priests of olden times was always in heaven. 
From some lofty eminence, mountain, pyramid or tower, 



1 84 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

they were continually making their observations, casting 
nativities and horoscopes, and uttering their prophecies. 
We have an illustration of this in the story of Baalim. The 
word B<aalim is plural and means the Baals; and they, that 
is, the zodiacal signs, being invoked by Balak, these stars in 
their various signs were consulted according to the rules of 
astronomical science, and refused to curse Israel;* and 
finally, the system of Baal worship was overturned in the 
battle that followed, only to be incorporated into .the 
Jewish system in a modified form, which was perpetuated 
and handed down to us in fragments, shorn of its beauty, 
and well calculated to bewilder the sincere investigator. 

The time is here once more for this line of work and this 
is to encourage us to explore the mystic regions of antiquity. 
Many learned men are now engaged in disentombing the 
relics of ancient literature, and deciphering the symbols 
and hieroglyphs, which can open the outer knowledge to us 
of the olden time, and show us the most sacred symbols of 
the ancient mysteries.* When the Jesuits visited China 
they found there a counterpart of their own religion, and 
could only explain it by supposing that the devil,t fore- 

*That is, when Balak set up the zodiac of the house of 
Israel, there was nothing therein to show which would cause 
the fall or curse of Israel. It is in this respect, the same .as 
though a horoscope were cast for a person and the signs did 
not show any ill-fortune to him. As with a person so with 
a nation. 

*The symbols and hieroglyphs can only explain the outer 
or esoteric part of the ancient mysteries. The initiates of 
these ancient Orders or priesthood alone can explain the 
inner meaning, for they alone hold the keys to the sacred 
mysteries. 

tThe poor devil, no matter what it may be, good or bad, 
when humanity cannot explain a thing then it is sure the 
devil who must have done it. These men had not the 
knowledge of the fact that China was at one period con- 
nected with the mainlands which connected with Atlantis 
and that all the religious symbolism came from one source 
and thus it was the devil who had brought religion to 
China. 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 1 85 

seeing their entrance, had forestalled them by introducing 
a fac simile before their arrival. 

"A late traveler among the Aztec ruins of Central 
America discovered the symbol of the cross, and exposed his 
ignorance by exclaiming: '"What missionary of the cross 
has penetrated these secluded regions centuries before 
Columbus discovered the world 1 ' i Missionaries of the cross 
indeed ! The ancient Phoenicians were the most successful 
missionaries of the cross long before the advent of Christi- 
anity. The cross, as has often been stated, was the grand 
emblem of salvation among all past nations, and the Chris- 
tians in accordance with the ancient religious ideas, showed 
their appreciation of its peculiar fitness by adopting it as 
their symbol to convey the same idea. The Phoenician 
navigators, trading as they did with every nation, intro- 
duced this symbol, together with the whole symbol of 
astronomical religion amongst the (all) ancient nations of 
earth.'* 



Chapter V. 

The Egyptians have left on record a most remarkable and 
complete symbolism in the form of Isis (the moon) in search 
of the body of Osiris (the sun), who had been slain by 
Typhon, the god of the infernal regions (winter personi- 
fied) . Osiris, when on his return from his travels in distaut 
regions, was invited to a repast by Typhon, his brother and 
rival. The latter put him to death and threw his body into 
the Nile. The sun then occupied the sign of Scorpio, and 
the moon was full. She was then in the sign opposite 
Scorpio, that is to say, in Taurus, which lent its form to the 
sun of the spring equinox. As soon as Isis was informed of 
the death of the unfortunate Osiris, whom all the ancients 
had denominated the same god as the sun, when she learned 
that the genius of darkness had shut him up in a coffin, she 
commenced a search after his body, uncertain of the route 
she ought to pursue, uneasy, agitated, her breast lacerated 
with grief. In mourning garb, she interrogates every, one 
she meets; she is informed by some young children (Gemini, 
the twins of May) that the coffin which contains the body of 
her husband had been carried by the waters out to sea and 
thence to Biblos, where it was stopped, and was now re- 
posing upon a plant, which had immediately put forth a 
superb stalk. The coffin was so enveloped as to bear the ap- 
pearance of being but a part of it. The king of the country, 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 187 

astonished at the beauty of the bush, had it cut, and made 
into a column for his palace without perceiving the coffin 
which had become incorporated with the trunk. Isis, 
actuated by a divine impulse, arrived at Biblos, bathed in 
tears; she seated herself near a fountain, where she re- 
mained overwhelmed with grief, speaking to no one until 
the arrival of the queen's women. She salutes them 
politely, and commenced dressing her hair in such a manner 
as to spread in it, as well as over her whole body, the odor 
of an exquisite perfume. The queen, learning from her 
women what had happened, and perceiving the exquisite 
odor of the ambrosia, desired to know the stranger; she 
invites her to the palace, attached her to her household, and 
placed her as nurse to her son. The goddess then made her- 
self known, and demanded that the precious column should 
be given to her. She drew from it easily the body of her 
husband, by disengaging the coffin from the branches which 
covered it ; these she found to be of light texture, which she 
perfumed with essences. She sent to the king and queen 
this envelope of strange boughs, which was deposited at 
Biblos, in the temple of Isis. She then embarked and re- 
turned to Egypt, to Orus, her son, and deposited the body 
in a secluded place. Typhon having gone to the chase that 
night, finds the coffin, recognizes the corpse, and cuts it into 
fourteen pieces, which he scattered here and there. The 
goddess on discovering this, collected these dispersed frag- 
ments, and interred each part in the place where it was 
found. 

"This is the precise Egyptian legend concerning Isis, 
which has not been handed down to us without much mutila- 
tion, and which makes part of a sacred poem upon Osiris, 
Isis, and Typhon, their enemy. I have given the foregoing 
legend to illustrate the method adopted by the ancient 
writers, in their descriptions of the movements of the 
heavenly bodies. In these legends the writers exercised 
their ingenuity to the utmost to give truthful astronomical 
statements of the movements of the sun, moon, and the 



X88 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

various constellations in such a manner that it would puzzle 
the brains of their hearers in the solution. Many of these 
astronomical enigmas occur in the Bible and if in the read- 
ing of them the student cannot readily decipher their mean- 
ing, he must remember that the writers purposely drew a 
veil over them ; and that even to this day, when Moses, or 
the Mosaic writings, are read in the synagogues, the veil 
is over the faces, or minds of the readers. In explaining 
this story of Isis, we shall be able to illustrate to a certain 
extent what is meant by the hidden meaning of these people. 

"The fourteen pieces of the disembodied body of Osiris 
represent the state and condition, and the gradual diminu- 
tion of the lunary light, during the fourteen days that fol- 
low the full moon. The moon at the end of the fourteen 
days enters Taurus aud becomes united to the sun, from 
which she collects fire upon her disc, during the fourteen 
days which follow. She is then found every month in con- 
junction with him in the superior parts of the signs. The 
equinoctial year finishes at the moment when the sun and 
moon are found united with Orion or the star Urus, a con- 
stellation placed under Taurus, which unites itself to the 
neomenia of spring. The moon renews herself in Taurus, 
and a few days after is seen in the form of a crescent, in 
the following sign, that is G-ermini, the home of Mercury. 
Then Orion, united to the sun in the attitude of a formid- 
able warrior, precipitates Scorpio, his rival, into the shades 
of night; for he sets every time Orion appears above the 
horizon. The day becomes lengthened, and the germs of 
evil are by degrees destroyed. It is thus that the poet Non- 
nus pictures to us Typhon conquered at the end of winter, 
when the sun arrives in Taurus, and when Orion mounts 
into the heavens with him. 

"It is important not to lose sight of the fact, that for- 
merly the history of the heavens, and particularly of the 
sun, was written under the form of the history of men* 

*Later on, the history of men was written under the form 
of these legends of the sun. Especially was this the case as 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 1 89 

and that the people almost universally received it as such, 
and looked upon the hero as a man. The tombs of the gods 
were shown, as if they had really existed; feasts were cele- 
brated, the object of which seemed to be to renew every year 
the grief which had been occasioned by their loss. SucE was 
the tomb of Osiris, covered under those enormous masses 
known by the name of the pyramids, which the Egyptians 
raised to the star which gives us light. One of these has its 
four sides facing the cardinal points of the world. Each of 
these fronts is one hundred and ten fathoms wide at the 
base, and the four form as many equilated triangles. The 
perpendicular heights are seventy-seven fathoms, according 
to the measurement given by Chazelles, of the Academy of 
Sciences. It results from these dimensions, and the latitude 
under which this pyramid is erected, that fourteen days 
before the spring equinox, the precise period at which the 
Persians celebrated the revival of nature, the sun would 
cease to cast a shade at midday, and- would not again cast it 
until fourteen days after the autumnal equinox. Then tiis 
day, or the sun, would be found in the parallel or circle of 
southern declension, which answers to 5 degrees, 15 
minutes; this would happen twice a year — once before the 
spring, and once after the fall equinox. The sun would 
then appear exactly at midday upon the summit or apex of 
this pyramid ; then his majestic disk would appear for some 
moments, placed upon this immense pedestal, and seem to 
rest upon it, while his worshippers, on their knees at its 
base, extending their view along the inclined plane of the 
northern front, would contemplate the great Osiris — as well 
when he descended into the darkness of the tomb, as when 
he arose triumphant. The same might be said of the full 



with Jesus the Nazarene and others. It is thus that there 
has been so much misunderstanding. First, the history of 
heaven was written under the form of the history of men 
and then, before and after the time of Jesus, the history of 
men was written under the form of the history of the 
heavens. 



I90 MYSTERIES OF OSIRig 

moon of the equinoxes when it takes place in this parallel. 

' ' It would seem that the Egyptians, always grand in their 
conceptions, had executed a project (the boldest that man 
could imagine) of giving a pedestal to the sun and moon, 
or to Osiris and Isis; at midday for one, and at midnight 
for the other, when they arrived in that part of the heaven3 
near to which passes the lines which separates the northern 
from the southern hemisphere; the empire of good from 
that of evil; the region of light from that of darkness. 
They wished that the shade should disappear from all the 
fronts of the pyramid at midday, during the whole time 
that the sun sojourned in the luminous hemisphere; and 
that the northern front should be again covered with shade 
when night began to attain her supremacy in our hemis- 
phere — that is, at the moment When Osiris descended into 
hell. The tomb of Osiris was covered with shade nearly six 
months, after which light surrounded it entirely at midday, 
as soon as he, returning from hades, regained his empire in 
passing into the luminous hemisphere. Then he returned 
to Isis, and to the god of spring, Orus, who had at length 
conquered the genius of darkness and winter. This was 
certainly a sublime idea." 

In the center of the pyramid is a vault, which was said 
to be the tomb of an ancient king. The king is the husband 
of Isis, whom the people believed to have reigned formerly 
over Egypt ; while the priests and learned men, or initiates, 
knew Osiris as the planet which governs the world, enriches 
it with benefits and who was the outward symbol of the one 
God. 

"The Romanists are celebrated for their gorgeous 
temples, and for the splendor of their modes of worship. 
But what modern temples dedicated to the worship of God 
can compare in magnificence and solemn grandeur with the 
pyramids of Egypt? What conception so sublime? What 
nation so devoted to their God as they ? No other nation 
was ever more truly religious; no other people left such 
magnificent and enduring marks of devotion and piety. 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. Igt 

They have written their creed on heaven's blue vault, and 
their confession of faith has been handed down to us in the 
pyramids, and symbols, and in those forms of worship that 
have their various ramifications throughout the world. 

''Says the bigot: "These msn were pagans, and conse- 
quently under the wrath of God." Here we are at issue 
with such, for we are able to prove that the idea so preva- 
lent that God is, or ever was angry, is an ancient myth. If 
God was angry with the Egyptian system of worship, why 
did he allow, even direct Moses to perpetuate the same 
forms, and most of their doctrines among the Jews? And 
why has every religious sect been permitted to perpetuate 
these forms and doctrines? It may be proper here to 
glance at the causes that combined to introduce and per- 
petuate these various forms and ceremonies of ancient and 
modem religion; for in as much as we reject the common 
idea that God has promulgated his laws, viva voca, to any 
man, but kn-oiv, on the contrary, that men of all nations re- 
ceive impressions, or a knowledge of the divine will, through 
their reflective or spiritual powers, it becomes us to show 
as far as we dare, the process by which the nations have ar- 
rived at their present position in these matters. The unani- 
mous testimony of ancient monuments present us a methodi- 
cal and complicated system, viz: that of the worship of all 
the stare, adored sometimes in their proper forms, and some- 
times under figurative emblems and symbols. 

This worship was the effect of the knowledge that men had 
acquired in physics, and was derived immediately from the 
first causes of this social state, that is, from the necessities 
and arts of the first degree which are among the elements of 
society. As soon as men began to unite in society, it be- 
came necessary for them to multiply the means of sub- 
sistence, and consequently to attend to agriculture; and 
that to be carried on with success required the observation 
and knowledge of the heavens. It was necessary to know 
the periodical return of the same operation of nature, and 
the same phenomena in the skies. It was necessary to go so 



J-92 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

far as to ascertain the duration and succession of the 
seasons and the months of the year. It was indispensable in 
the first place to know the course of the sun, who, in his 
zodiacal revolution shows himself the first and supreme 
agent of the whole creation; then the moon, who by her 
phases and periods, regulates and distributes time; then of 
the stars, and even planets, which by their appearance and 
disappearance on the horizon and nocturnal hemisphere, 
marked the minutest divisions; finally, it was necessary to 
form a whole system of astronomy, or a calendar, and from 
these works there naturally followed a new manner of con- 
sidering these predominant and governing powers. Having 
observed that the productions of the earth had a regular 
and constant relation to the heavenly bodies ; that the rise, 
growth, the decline of each plant kept pace with the appear- 
ance, elevation, and declination of the same star, or group of 
stars; in short, that the languor or activity of vegetation 
seemed to depend upon celestial influences, men drew from 
them an idea of action, of powers in those beings, superior 
to earthly bodies; and the stars dispensing plenty or 
scarcity, became powers, genii, gods, authors of good and 
evil. As the state of society had already introduced a 
regular hierarchy of ranks, employments, and conditions; 
men continuing to reason by comparison, carried their new 
notions into their theology, and formed a complicated 
system of gradual divinities, in which the sun, as first god, 
was a military chief, a political king; the moon was his wife 
and queen ; the planets were servants, bearers of commands, 
messengers; and the multitudes of stars were a nation, an 
army of heroes, genii whose office was to govern the world 
under the orders of their chiefs ; and all the individuals had 
names, functions, attributes drawn from their relations and 
influences, and even sexes, from the gender of their appella- 
tions. It should be borne in mind that the priests and in- 
itiates had nothing whatever to do with the making of such 
a system. It was the people, through a gradual growth, 
who did this. The priests were the men who watched these 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 193 

stars and their influence and gave the knowledge to the 
people of what they should do and when they should do it, 
but the people made gods of these stars. Another im- 
portant point to bear in mind is, that all governments are 
after this very system of sun or star worship. 

Careful comparison of the doctrines and ceremonies of 
-the Jews and ancients must satisfy every candid mind, that 
the difference is very slight, and that Moses perpetuated 
most of the ideas and forms of worship he learned in his 
initiation into the Egyptian priesthood. The main points 
of difference, but which is apparent only, is in the substitu- 
tion of the doctrine of one God, in the place of a plurality 
believed in by the people. But as Moses himself admitted, 
this doctrine was the foundation of the true Egyptian in- 
itiation and therefore Moses did not even substitute it, but 
what he did do, was to try to teach it to all his people. The 
religious notions of all the nations, tribes and people, in- 
cluding the ancestors of the Jews, had a common origin, a 
sameness of belief, and forms so similar, that it was im- 
possible for such a people, debased by centuries of abject 
slavery, to unlearn and throw off the entire belief, habits 
and modes of worship, that they and their ancestors had 
most religiously adhered to from the earliest ages. If it be 
objected here, that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, were called 
out of paganism by God, we answer that there is no evi- 
dence that can be discovered in the Bible account of the call 
of Abraham that will sustain the objection. The Lord told 
Abraham to leave his kindred and the land of his birth to 
go into a land that he would show him and give to him and 
his seed after him. Nothing is said to justify the idea that 
God thought Abraham's early religion was false, but as he 
journeyed the Lord frequently appeared to him, and he 
built altars and worshipped according to the most approved 
pagan method. But the second and third verses of the 
sixth chapter of Exodus must settle the matter at once to 
the satisfaction of the honest investigator: "And God 
spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the Lord; and I 



194 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by 
my name God Almighty; but by the name Jehovah I was 
not known unto them." If you substitute the word Baal 
Tsaddi for God Almighty in the above quotation, you will 
have the literal reading of the Hebrew. According to God's 
statement, these patriarchs only knew and worshipped God 
as a Chaldean Baal. I know it is a common belief that 
Abraham was a pagan until God had called him, but not 
after that time. If this were so, how can it be true that 
Isaac and Jacob knew him not as Jehovah ? Did Abraham 
die with the knowledge of the true God locked up in his own 
bosom? Says the objector: "The name makes no dif- 
ference." If the name makes no difference, then the whole 
question is granted that we desire to prove, viz: that the 
sincere worshipper is accepted, even though he be a wor- 
shipper of Baal, or Adonis, or On, or Chemosh ; all of which 
names appear in the Bible as the names of the true God. as 
also does the name of El (the sun), under the forms of Eloi 
and Elohim, or Aloim ; the former being the possessive case, 
and the latter the plural number. And thus it is, no matter 
what the name, that all men are accepted unto God, all men 
are the sons of God, if they have found the Christ within 
themselves, then there can be no difference for there is no 
name for this and for God. under this condition. 

The whole system of the Egyptian worship was astro- 
nomical and far more ancient than any written book. 
Josephns wants to make us believe that Abraham taught 
the Egyptians their astrology. If this is true, then Abra- 
ham must have lived long before there were any Egyptians 
as such; he must have been an Atlantean. However, an 
unprejudiced comparison of the Hebrew and ancient 
systems will satisfy the investigator that the former was 
but a reform of the latter, and made suitable to customs of 
the country. 

"The initiated, or priesthood, had one belief for them- 
selves and another for the people. The initiates believed 
and taught, among themselves the one God, but had to 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 1 95 

allow the masses to believe in many ;(a) and Moses in teach- 
ing the Unity of God, stated this fact. But the Hebrews, 
even after they had been taught this, continued, in their 
varied fasts and feasts, to worship as had their ancestors, 
and were continually falling back into polytheism, and 
persisted in building temples and altars to the various gods 
to whom their ancestors paid divine honors. Among the 
ancient nations, persons preferred to honors bore a sceptre 
or staff of honor, and sometimes a plate of gold on the fore- 
head, called cadosh, signifying a sacred person. The Jews 
continued the practice. When the tribes murmured at see- 
ing the priesthood settled in the family of Aaron, the chiefs 
of the tribes received orders to bring their sceptres into the 
tabernacle. The sceptre of Levi, borne by Aaron, was 
found in bloom the next day. The plate of gold was also 
worn by the Chief Priests of the Israelites, on the forehead, 
on which was engraven two words, Kodesch Ishovah, that 
is, Holy of the Lord. The sacred fire of the Jews was but a 
perpetuation of the sacred and perpetual fires of the 
ancient fire worshippers.* If a Jew touched a dead body 
he was defiled; the same idea predominated in the pagan 
world. Jamblicus, an ancient Writer, gives the following 
reasons for this practice : ' ' It is not lawful to touch human 
bodies when the sou] has left them, since a vestige, image, or 
representation of divine life is extinguished in the body by 
death. But it is no longer unholy to touch other dead 
bodies, because they did not participate of a more divine 
life. To other gods, therefore, who are pure from mutter, 
our not touching dead bodies is adapted ; but to those gods 
who preside over animals, and are proximately connected 

*Here we come across the mystery of Phallas and fire 
worship once more. This, in the present case, was a com- 
bination of the two for there could be no sacred fire without 
the symbol of both generation and re-generation. It was 
the greatest desire of Moses to teach the children of Israel 
this mighty and sublime mystery, — but it was a complete 
failure, — even Aaron allowed himself to be seduced by the 
passions and worshipped the image. 



19 6 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

with them, invocation through animals is properly made." 

a. It would have been dangerous for the Egyptian priests 
to attempt undeceiving the people and divert them from the 
pleasing thought that Osiris and Isis were two real person- 
ages, and were besides of their country and the protectors 
of Egypt. The actions of Osiris and Isis were incessantly 
mentioned; the people believed that they saw and heard; 
the perpetual recital of as many historical facts as there 
were figures and ceremonials exhibited. 

If our councils and the most venerable of our bishops 
have had so much ado to abolish among our people the belief 
of certain legends unworthy the majesty of our religion, 
and which are connected with no monuments capable of 
countenancing them, how can we conceive that the Egyp- 
tian priests were able to take from a people immersed in 
the cupidity the extravagant stories which universal custom 
offered to their minds on the sight of the personages and 
animals wherewith the places of their assemblies were 
filled 1 The people, in their fanatic enthusiasm, would havs 
torn in pieces any that should have dared to deny that the 
history of Osiris and Isis were true. 



Chapter VI. 

"The claim set up by and for the Jews that circumcision 
was a peculiarity of that nation, and ordained or given for 
the first time to them, is, as already stated, a claim abso- 
lutely false. On the contrary, there is abundant evidence 
that it constituted one of the most important ceremonies in 
the Egyptian ritual. "When Pythagoras went to Egypt, he 
carried letters of introduction from Polycrates, king of 
Samos, to Amasia, king of Egypt, who was a distinguished 
patron of literary men, and thus obtained access to the col- 
leges of the priests, or what in Judea would be called the 
schools of the prophets. Having found it difficult to gain 
this privilege, he performed many severe and troublesome 
preliminary ceremonies, and even submitted to circum- 
cision, one of the prescribed conditions for admission. In 
Egypt, as stated, circumcision was confined to the aspirant 
for initiation. Moses later extended it to all the males of 
the nation and to all proselytes. 

"Besides the Sabbath," said DePauw, "which the Egyp- 
tians seem to have observed very regularly, they had a fixed 
festival at each new moon; one at the summer, and one at 
the winter solstice, as well as at the vernal and autumnal 
equinoxes. I need not tell you how sacredly the Jews ob- 
served the Sabbath and the feast of the new moon. Cir- 
cumcision was a tangible method of perpetuating the idea 



1 98 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

of the sacredness of a circle. In the ceremony, the foreskin 
of the flesh was cut off in a circular form, or a ring, repre- 
senting the serpent with his tail in his mouth, and was the 
diploma or evidence of membership, and proof of ad- 
mission into the priesthood or congregation of the Lord. 
The tribes contiguous to Judea placed a yod in the center 
of a circle, as a symbol of deity surrounded by eternity, 
of which he was said to be the inscrutable author, the orna- 
ment and support. The Samothracians had a great venera- 
tion for the circle, which they considered as consecrated by 
the universal presence of deity. The Chinese use the same 
symbol. The Hindoos believe that God is represented by a 
perfect sphere, without beginning and without end. 

' ' The temples of the British Druids were circular, many 
of them with a single stone in the center (a yod within a 
circle). Their solemn processions were all arranged in the 
same form; their weapons of war, the circular shield with 
a central boss, the spear with a hollow globe at its end, etc., 
all partaking of this general principle ; and without a circle 
it was thought impossible to obtain the favors of the gocls. 
The rite of divination could not be securely and successfully 
performed unless the operator was protected with the conse- 
crated perophery of a magical circle. The plant vervain 
was supposed to possess the virtue of preventing the effects 
of fascination, if gathered ritually with an iron instrument, 
at the rising of the dog-star, accompanied with the essential 
ceremony of describing a circle on the turf, the cir- 
cumference of which shall be equally distant from the plant 
before it be taken up. Specimens of British temples 
founded on the principle of a point within a circle are still 
in existence to demonstrate the truth of the theory. The 
body of the temple at Classerniss. sacred to the sun and the 
elements, will illustrate the principle before us. This Celtic 
temple was constructed on geometrical and astronomical 
principles, in the form of a cross and a circle. The circle 
consisted of twelve upright stones, in allusion to the solar 
year or the twelve signs of the zodiac; the east, west and 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. I99 

south, are marked by three stones each, placed within the 
circle, in direct lines, pointing to each of the quarters ; and 
towards the north is a double row of twice nineteen stones, 
forming two perpendicular parallel lines, with a single 
elevated stone at the. entrance. In the center of the circle 
stands, high exalted above the rest, the gigantic representa- 
tive of the deity. This extraordinary symbol was also used 
by the ancient inhabitants of Scandinavia, and had an un- 
doubted reference to the hall of Odin, of the zodiac,- which 
the Edda informs us contained twelve seats disposed in the 
form of a circle, for the principal gods, besides an elevated 
throne in the center for Odin, as the representative of the 
great Father. 

"It is remarkable that in all the ancient systems, the 
great Father, or the male generative principle was uni- 
formly symbolized by a point within a circle. This emblem 
was placed by the Scandinavian priests and poets on the 
central summit of a rainbow, which was fabled to be the 
bridge leading from earth to heaven (it is also the devil's 
bridge) ; the emblem therefore represented Vallhall, or the 
supernal palace of the chief celestial deity. It is said in the 
Edda that this bridge 'is all on fire, for the giants of the 
mountains would climb up to heaven by it if it were easy 
for any one to walk over it.' The palace thus elevated was 
no other than the celestial system illuminated by a central 
sun, whose representative on earth was Thor, a god de- 
picted by Verstegan with a crowned head, placed in the 
center of twelve bright stars, expressive of the sun's annual 
course through the zodiacal signs. In the caves which 
priests everywhere constructed, they celebrated mysteries 
which consisted in imitating the motions of the stars, the 
planets and the heavens. The initiated sometimes took the 
name of the constellations, and assumed the figures of 
animals. In the cave of Mithra was a ladder of seven steps, 
representing the seven spheres of the planets by means of 
which souls ascended and descended; this is precisely the 
ladder of Jacob's vision and the Masonic ladder. There is 



20O MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

in the royal library a superb volume of pictures of the 
Indian gods, in which the ladder is represented with the 
souls of men descending it. The Jews had a method of rep- 
resenting' God by a yod in the center of a triangle. The 
triangle represents the male, the circle the female principle. 
This initial letter yod denotes the thought, the idea of God. 
'It is the ray of light/ says the Cabalist, 'which darts a 
lustre too transcendent to be contemplated by mortal eye; 
it is a point at which thought pauses, and imagination itself 
grows giddy and confounded.' 'Man,' said M. Basnage, 
citing the Rabbins, 'may lawfully roll his thoughts from 
one end of heaven to the other ; but he cannot approach that 
inaccessible light, that primitive existence contained in the 
letter yod.' The chief varieties of this sacred name 
(symbolized by the letter yod), among the various nations, 
were Jah or Yac ; Bel or Baal, and On or Om. The first 
of these has many fluctuations ; Jupiter, Jove, Evohe, etc., 
were but corruptions of Jah or Jehovah. Iao or Jao was 
pronounced by the oracle of Apollo to be the first and 
greatest of the deities. The compounds of the second name, 
Bel, are of great variety. The third variation was On; 
under this appellation the deity was worshipped by the 
Egyptians, and they professed to believe that he was 
eternal, and the fountain of light and life; the sun was 
adored as his representative under the name of Osiris. 
Oannes, or John, was a god of the Chaldeans, and Dagon 
of the Philistines, both of which are derivations of the same 
name. On Avas the same deity as the Hebrew Jehovah, and 
was introduced among the Greeks by Plato, who acknowl- 
edges his eternity and incomprehensibility in those remark- 
able Avords: 'Tell me of the god On; who is, and never 
knew beginning.' And the same name was used by the 
early Christians for the true God; for St. John in the 
Apocalypse (chapter I, verse 4) makes use of the following 
sentence: 'On, kai o'en, kai o 'erchomenos ; ' in our version 
rendered, 'Him, which is, and which was, and which is to 
come ;' the Avord On being translated Him. The same word, 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. JO I 

with a slight variation, was one of the names of the supreme 
deity of India; and a devout meditation on it was con- 
sidered capable of conveying the highest degree of perfec- 
tion. In the ordinances of Menu, we are informed how this 
6acred name was produced: 'Brahma milked out, as it 
were, from the three vedas, the letter A, the letter U, and 
the letter M,(a) which form by their coalition, the triliteral 
monosyllable, together with three mysterious words : Bhur, 
bhuvah, swer; or earth, sky, heaven. These three letters, 
which are pronounced Om or Aum, refer to the deity, in his 
triple capacity of creator, preserver and destroyer. The 
method of using it is given in the same code. Notwithstand- 
ing that the ancients taught the oneness of deity they still 
taught a trinity or threefold action of God with about as 
much clearness as the Trinitarians of our day, but they 
made it more reasonable as they treated the subject more 
scientifically.' " 

a. To combat the subtle but ever-present enemies {our 
devils) and guard their wandering thoughts against the 
intrusion of vain desires, also to regain that "internal in- 
spiration," which tradition teaches was once the privilege 
of humanity, enabling God to fill the interior man, and pre- 
serve the breath from pollution by admixture with the 
outer air, the Hindoo devotee is required to suspend his 
respiration and inwardly repeat sixteen times the sacred 
syllable AUM — the ineffable word, which contains the name 
and attribute of deity — and thus, by such methods of 
mental introversion, it is possible that complete absorption 
in divine things may be attained. Directions were given 
for the attitude to be assumed in these exercises. Some- 
times the vision is to be directed towards the end of the 
nose ; sometimes to the region of the heart, or other portions 
of the body. 

By sitting square in four points, that is, resting on the 
heels, and so fixing the thumbs and fingers as to exclude the 
action of external sight and hearing, the soul concentrated 
on these several centers of life and astral influence, will call 



202 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

down the spirits of the planets who govern such regions of 
the body, and thus will be stimulated into supermundane 
force, the virtues of which abound in those mystic centers of 
creative and regenerative force. 

Towards the middle ages a strange, peaceful sect arose, 
who from their methods of completely abstracting the 
senses from all external objects and concentrating their 
soul powers in certain regions of the body, were termed 
Hesychiasts. They took up their abode in the region of 
Mount Athos, where, under the direction of an Abbot, the 
laws founded upon the rigid discipline of monasticism, they 
devoted themselves to acts of charity, the cure of the sick, 
and the complete abstraction of all the senses from mun- 
dane things. Their mode of effecting this mental absorp- 
tion is thus stated by one of their writers : 

"Sitting alone in. a corner, observe what I tell you. Lock 
your door, and raise your mind from every worldly thing. 
Then sink your beard upon your breast, fix your eyes upon 
the center of your body. Contract the air passages, that 
breathing may be impeded. Strive mentally to find the 
position of the heart, where all the mind's powers reside. 
At first you will discover only darkness and unyielding 
density, but if you persevere night and day, you will 
miraculously enjoy unspeakable happiness, for the soul 
then perceives that which it never saw before, the radiance 
in which God resides; a great light dwelling between the 
heart and soul." This was precisely the inner teachings of 
the Essenes with whom Christ was a student, but that they 
has changed this training into a more scientific mode. This 
was truly the finding of the Christ and once this state was 
attained, many found the kingdom of heaven and became 
the "son of God." 

"The philosophers of all nations have had some idea of 
the triplicity of the supreme unity, but it was only the in- 
itiates who understood the mystery. Plato speaks of the 
three forms of divinitj', which he calls Agathos, Logos, and 
Psyche; that is, Agathos the sovereign good, which is the 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 203 

principle of deity; or rather the intelligence, which drew 
the plan of the world; the Logos, or word, is the energy 
which executed it : and Psyche is but another name for Isis, 
indicating the production of the earth, which gives a finish 
and beauty to the whole creation. This is agreeable to the 
Masonic trinity: Wisdom, Strength and Beauty. This 
trinity of Plato also corresponds to the New Testament 
trinity, viz: God the Father, or sovereign good; Christ the 
Logos, translated word in the first chapter of John, by 
whom the Father made all things ; and Psyche, the holy 
breath, or spirit (mistranslated Ghost), that breathes life 
into inanimate nature and gives beauty to the new creation. 
"Nontanelle gives a curious anecdote of a response of the 
oracle Serapis : ' Thules, a king of Egypt, who, it is stated, 
gave the name Thule to the isle now called Iceland ; his 
empire reaching thither, was of vast extent, and being 
puffed up with pride, he went to the oracle of Serapis, and 
spoke thus to it: "Thou art the God of fire, and who 
governeth the course of the heavens, tell me the truth : was 
there ever, or will there ever be, one so puissant as myself?" 
The oracle answered him thus : "First God, then word and 
spirit, all united in one, whose power can never end. Go 
hence immediately, Mortal ! whose life is always un- 
certain." And Thules at his going hence had his throat 
cut. The Greek inscription on the great obelisk at Rome 
was to this effect: "The mighty God; begotten of God, 
and the all resplendant Apollo, the spirit." ' 

"Whenever modern sectarians are pointed to the agree- 
ment of many of the modern and the ancient ideas, we are 
generally informed that the Greeks borrowed them from the 
Jews. The facts, as an ignorant child should know, are far 
otherwise, for all reliable history informs us that the Greeks 
borrowed her theology from Egypt, the same source that 
supplied Moses, for Egypt was old ages before Moses was 
born. The idea of a pagan trinity (with the people) was 
founded upon the threefold action of the sun, during the 
warm season of the year. The sun thus characterized, is no 



904 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

other than the three-eyed Jupiter, eye and sun being ex- 
pressed by the same word in most of the ancient languages. 
This is the origin of and meaning of the symbolism of the 
trinitary systems, subtilized by Pythagoras and Plato, and 
totally disfigured by their interpreters, for it is in itself but 
a symbolism of the inner meaning. In the ancient British, 
and other mysteries, the three pillars: wisdom, strength 
and beauty, represented the emblematical triad of deity. 
It is a fact, that in the Britain the adytum, or lodge, was 
supposed to convey a regenerating* purity to the aspirant, 
after having endured the ceremony of initiation in all its 
accustomed formalities; the delivery from between them 
was the new birth. The corresponding pillars of the Hindoo 
mythology was also known by the name of wisdom, strength 
and beauty, and placed in the east, west and south. They 
jointly referred to the Creator, who is said to have planned 
the great work by his infinite wisdom; executed it by his 
strength; and to have adorned it with all its beauty and 
usefulness for the benefit of man. These united powers 
were not overlooked in the mysteries, for we find them 
represented in the solemn ceremony of initiation, by the 
three presiding Brahmins or Hierophants. The chief 
Brahman sat in the east, high exalted on a brilliant throne, 
clad in a flowing robe of azure, thickly sparkled with golden 
stars, and bearing in his hand a magical wand; thus symbol- 
izing Brahma, the creator of the world. His two compeers, 



*This is no idle dream, but the fact is, that the aspirant 
in going through the ancient initiation was truly re- 
generated. He was not taught some abstract philosophy, 
but he was given a mode of life to live, a certain training or 
development to go through and a certain meditation. This 
brought about the re-generation, for he was taught the real 
mystery of the re-generating principle. This is at this 
present day accomplished in the Temple of Osiris and in the 
Rosicrucian Fraternity. There was a ritual, but contrary 
to what is usually believed, this ritual was not the initiation 
but was only a form conferred upon the aspirant after he 
had become a true initiate. 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 20$ 

dad in robes of equal magnificance, occupied corresponding 
situations of distinction. The representative of Visliu, the 
setting sun, was placed on an exalted throne in the west; 
and he who personated Siva, the meridian sun, occupied a 
splendid throne in the south. In like manner the Persians, 
who termed their emblematical mithratic cave or lodge the 
Einpyrian, feigned it to be supported by three intelligences, 
Ormisda, Mithra, and Mithras, who were eternity, 
fecundity, and authority. Similar to this were the forms 
of the Egyptian deity, designated by the attributes of wis- 
dom, power, and goodness ; and the sovereign, good, intellect, 
and energy of the Platonists, which were also regarded as 
the respective properties of the divine triad. It is thus 
proven that every mysterious system practiced on the 
habitable globe, contained this triad of deity. The oracle 
in Damascus asserts that 'throughout the world a triad 
shines forth, which resolves itself into a monad,' and the 
uniform symbol of this threefold deity was an equilateral 
triangle, the precise form occupied by our pillars of wisdom, 
strength and beauty. In the mysteries of India, Brahma, 
Vishnu and Siva were considered a triune God, called tri- 
murti or tri-form. Brahma was called the creator, Vishnu 
the preserver, and Siva the judge or destroyer. 
- "From this it will be found, and the conclusion is in- 
evitable, that the doctrine of the Trinitarians was a 
principle ingredient of the ancient mysteries. It is an idea 
or doctrine more ancient than usually believed, and as it 
was understood and taught by the ancients, more philo- 
sophical and reasonable than the modern notion of the 
three distinct persons in one, and one of them born un- 
numbered ages after the others ; or, even the ignorant idea 
that God has a son as old as himself. The earlier part of 
the Bible, like all ancient writings extant, is shrouded in 
legends, and enveloped in that glorious mystery that 
ancient writers delighted to throw around their teachings. 
The history of the creation, as we find it recorded in the 
first and second chapters of Genesis, is a record of the 



2o6 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

traditions extant in the times of Moses, or at least had as- 
sumed a written form about that time, as written language 
was then in its infancy, if ancient history is reliable. There 
are evidently two accounts of the creation, differing in 
detail somewhat, although agreeing in the main. They 
were probably committed to parchment at different periods. 
The first ending at the third verse of the second chapter 
was probably written before God proclaimed himself to 
Moses by his new name Jehovah (Exodus 6th chapter, 3d 
verse), as that name does not occur in the first chapter of 
Genesis. Whenever God is named in the first account of 
creation he is called in the Hebrew Elohim or Alehim; in 
the second he is called IeHouah, or Jehovah Elohim. Both 
are polytheistic and recognize the gods as the actors in the 
creation. The root of the word rendered God is El, or as 
we have it in the New Testament, Eloi, the Hebrew name 
for the sun j with the ending im the word became plural, 
and ought to have been translated and made to read: 'In 
the beginning the gods created,' etc. "What then does the 
word Elohim mean? What did the ancients understand 
by the term? It simply means the general name for deity 
and was equivalent for gods. The first chapter of Genesis 
simply affirms that the gods created the heavens and the 
earth. The second being a Hebrew account, says Jehovah 
the gods created, etc, Jehovah being the proper name of the 
Hebrew god. Some authors tell us that an old Samaritan 
version of the Bible commences thus: 'In the beginning 
the goat renovated the heavens and the earth,' etc. To the 
uninitiated this would pass as simply a typographical or 
clerical error; but an acquaintance with the theology of the 
ancients explains the matter satisfactorily without sup- 
posing a mistake. The ancients always contended that 
nothing came from nothing, and that matter once existing 
could never be destroyed ; consequently they knew nothing 
of creation, but could only say the earth and heavens were 
renovated. Many of the ablest scholars say the Hebrew 
word 'boro,' rendered created, ought to have been trans- 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 207 

lated renovated. Just before the time of Moses the Bull of 
April was the leader up of the heavenly hosts, or ushered in 
the spring, because the vernal equinox was in that constella- 
tion. The period of creation, as well as the beginning of the 
year, always had its location at the vernal equinox ; conse- 
quently if we should find a version of the Bible that said the 
bull renovated the heavens and the earth, we should be at 
no loss to understand it, and furthermore it would be 
orthodox too, for if the creation took place about the last of 
May, which would bring it into the constellation Taurus, it 
would give us for the age of the world about 6000 years; 
but here is the mystery. Again, if the creation, or renova- 
tion, occurred in the constellation of the goat it gives about 
21,000 years for the creation, and if we accept the notion 
that the earth is only 6000 years old we must conclude that 
those Samaritans made a great blunder when they said the 
earth was first renovated in the constellation of the goat. 
This mystery is explained in the precession of the 
equinoxes. But, allowing that the version of our Bible is 
correct, Ave can easily understand the perplexity of the 
serai-ancient writers in attempting to go back of the period 
when old night brooded over chaos, to inquire what existed 
before that epoch, and in utter despair of penetrating be- 
yond the darkness that existed before God said: 'Let there 
be light ; ' they content themselves with describing briefly 
the wintry state of nature anterior to the time when the 
Elohmi of the vernal sign said 'let there be light;* and 
after reducing chaos to order, bringing harmony out of con- 
fusion, and preparing the earth for the abode of man, said, 
'let us make man in our image.' According to this ancient 
system is was believed that there was a trinity of powers or 
intelligences in each constellation or sign, making thirty- 
six of these powers or gods in the zodiae to whom the sun 
gave his power successively during the month that he 
sojourned in the sign ; hence in the account of creation, the 
writer either refers to the Elohim of the vernal signor to a 
convocation of the twenty-one having power over the seven 



«08 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

warm months. In the 11th chapter of Judges, 24th verse, 
Jephtha says to the king of Amnion, 'Wilt thou not possess 
that which Chemosh, thy Alien, giveth thee to possess ? So 
whomsoever Taveh, Iehovah, or Jehovah, our Aleim, shall 
drive out from before us, them will we possess.' Again in 
Joshua 10:42 we read, 'And all these kings and their land 
did Joshua take at one time, because Jehovah, Aleim of 
Israel, fought for Israel.' And again in Judges 1 :19, 'And 
Jehovah drove out the inhabitants of the mountain, but 
could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley because 
they had chariots of iron.' This last quotation furnishes 
indubitable evidence of the fact that the early Hebrew 
writers supposed Jehovah was only the God of their nation 
and had no power over the other nations only as he was 
able to overcome them in war by the aid of his people. With 
this key we will find that the birth of the Hebrew nation 
took place but 6000 years ago and that the God of the 
Hebrews, Jehovah, was only their God and not the God of 
other nations. This will explain much of the ideas of a 
creation 6000 years ago. It also shows us that the Hebrews 
were really a very ictensely pagan nation in believing that 
there must be separate Gods for separate nations. 



Chapter VII. 

"We may, without any great stretch .of the imagination, 
transport ourselves in spirit to the period just preceding the 
creation of man. At that precise period the Elohim of each 
month had performed their appropriate work; the darkness, 
cold and confusion of winter, had been dispelled; the earth 
was clothed with vegetation; the ocean and rivers abounded 
in fish, the songsters warbled in the groves, and the animals 
everywhere roamed unrestrained without a master; but now 
the last, the mightiest work of creation must be accom- 
plished, and to this end is summoned a grand council of the 
gods, and result in the grand fiat: 'let us make man, in our 
image, after our likeness.' 'So Elohim created man in his 
image ; in the image of Elohim, created he him. ' 

' ' This grand event of creative power could be with safety 
ascribed to the gods, but the modus operandi could only be 
by miracle; and the attendant circumstances, Tvith the 
principal events of his life, must be explained, as were the 
lives of all remarkable characters, in accordance with the 
movements and mode of action of the heavenly bodies. The 
name Ad-am is compounded from the Greek Ad-on-es, and 
Am-mon, the father god, and simply means the Lord- 
Father or Father-Lord. And the word Eve is synonymous 
with Isis, the Egyptian, and Ceres, the Greek goddess, and 
had her domicile in August. 



IXO MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

' ' The whole story of the temptation, fall, and the flaming 
cherubim to guard the way to the tree of life, is to be found 
written (in its symbolic meaning only) in the stars after the 
following manner: 'If you take a celestial globe, and bring 
the crest of Cancer to the upper meridian, you will find the 
horizon at the two equinoxes in Aries and Libra respec- 
tively, thus showing, by including Aries and Libra, an arc 
of 210 degrees, or seven-twelfths of a circle, with Aries and 
Libra as two pillars, on which rests the royal arch of the 
kingdom of heaven, and constituting the dominion of sum- 
mer, the reign of fruits and flowers. At the coming together 
of the two seasons, when the watery or baptismal months 
are on the decrease, the months of salvation on the increase, 
and approaching summer promises a reward to industry, 
we have the covenant of works, when the reward is reckoned 
of debt', for the promise is, that if we plough and sow, in 
due time we shall reap if we faint not ; so at the autumnal 
equinox, in shouting the harvest home and at the vintage 
feast, we have the covenant of grace or favor. Commencing 
then with Aries and counting to the sixth month, we find 
the figure of a female, which astronomers call VirgO, a 
virgin in the sixth month. In the Adamic projection of the 
spheres she is called Cavah (pronounced Ka-a-vah) ; in the 
Chald'aic projection, Eve; in the Egyptic, Isis; in the 
Greek, Ceres; in the Latin, Maris; all of these signifying 
mother of life. A little to the north of this virgin, in con- 
jugal proximity, we find the constellation Bootes, the 
loseppe of the Greek zodiac, whence our word Joseph; in 
Phoenician, accordiug to Sanchoniathan, Ad-ham, whence 
our word Adam. So here in Paradise we find Adam and 
Eve in actual existence.* Immediately south and lying 
along the zodiac, is the constellation of the Serpent, extend- 
ing from Cancer to Libra, the length of four constellations. 
In this garden of Eden, then we find the man Adam, the 
woman Eve, and the great Serpent. The woman holds in 

*The word Paradise is compounded of two words, mean- 
ing "among the stars." 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 2 1 * 

her left hand a spike of corn 1 , in which is the brilliant star 
Spiea Virginis; her right hand is extended toward Adam 
or Bootes; in her right (in the common school atlas) she 
holds a sprig; in the old planispheres, this figure was varied 
to suit the w T hims of the astrologers, sometimes probably 
fruits and flowers; for it must be remembered that accord- 
ing to the Hebrew account she offered -fruit to Adam, but 
the Chinese say she gave him a forbidden rose. "The ser- 
pent is said to seduce the woman. Seduce comes from, or is 
synonymous with seducere, to lead on, to go before, a 
pioneer. As the constellations of Bootes, Virgo and Hydra 
descend to the western horizon, the constellation Perseus, 
clad in armor with a helmet on his head, with a breast- 
plate on, and wings on his feet, rises on the eastern horizon. 
In his right hand he holds a flaming sword, in form like a 
Persian cimeter, colored red to designate the red stars with- 
in its outlines ; while in his left hand he holds the writhing 
serpents. Perseus represents the cherubim with flaming 
sword, which turns every way to the tree of life." ' 

Although we have been taught to believe that the serpent 
deceived our celebrated ancestors, the test does not sustain 
that view of the subject; for although the Lord said they 
should die on the very day in which they tasted the for- 
bidden fruit, yet they seem not to have suffered the penalty, 
but lived to corroborate the truth of what the serpent as- 
sured them, viz : that they should become as gods, knowing 
good and evil. In the third chapter and twenty-second 
verse of Genesis, the Lord said, "Behold the man is become 
as one of us, to know good and evil." Thus we have the 
mystery in its outer form but there is an inner meaning of 
this whole matter. Part of this is explained in the real 
story of the first beings on earth, and the desire which 
caused their fall, but with this is still another mystery 
which includes the mystery of re-generation. 

"It is a common mistake among the unlettered, to sup- 
pose that men acquainted with the Hebrew language can 
solve the manv difficulties that cluster around the original. 



212 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

If we converse with one of the learned about the sense of the 
Bible, he will tell you that the Hebrew texts read thus or 
so, and we at once yield our judgment to his assumption, 
that because he reads the Hebrew, therefore he is ac- 
quainted with the original. Nothing can be further from 
the truth ; no living man has ever seen the original, or even 
a copy of the original. The Hebrew Bibles now in use are 
written in the square letter, not invented prior to the third 
century; divided into words (a system of writing not intro- 
duced in the earliest manuscripts) ; punctuated by the 
'Masora,' commencing in the sixth and closing about the 
ninth century; and sub-divided into verses (not begun be- 
fore the thirteenth century). And even though the original 
text could be had, this would not give us the proper inter- 
pretation to it, as that must be found elsewhere. What a 
man may say is not always what he means when he says it. 

"The same difficulty exists in regard to the New Testa- 
ment; learned men admit that our Greek Testament was 
translated from the barbarous, mongrel Latin, spoken and 
written in the dark ages. These books have run the gaunt- 
let of interpretation through various superstitious sects and 
parties. During the centuries that papacy reigned supreme, 
the Bible from which our copies came, were entirely within 
its grasp; the masses were steeped to their lips in the 
grossest ignorance ; but few even of the priests could write 
their own name; and who can tell the changes that the 
sacred text was compelled to undergo while they were lords 
paramount of the civilized world. 

"A knowledge of Hebrew and Greek will indeed show us 
many of the falsities of our translation, but will hardly 
enable us to know the entire sense of the book. It will show 
us that in some books the Egyptian God is the hero of the 
tale, while in others the Chaldean, the Ammonian, the Greek 
or Hebrew God is the being that the writer worshipped. 

"During the eighteen years of the reign of good king 
Josiah, the Hebrew Bible was unknown, and how long prior 
to that is quite uncertain. But after the eighteen years had 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 21^ 

transpired a book of the law was found. Where? By 
whom ? What book was it ? The Jews had filled Jerusalem 
with the temples of Baal ; the temple of Jehovah, neglected, 
was fast hastening to decay; the book of the law was lost, 
and good Josiah 'did that which was right in the sight of 
the Lord,' and reigned eighteen years, yet knew nothing of 
the existence of the book of the law. 

''The Old Testament is a record of the laws of Moses, and 
the doings of the Jewish kings and rulers for a long period. 
Most of these rulers were pagans who had lost all ihe^inner 
meaning of the sacred teachings, and the public archives 
were in their hands ; and if they did not alter the records of 
the other party, we may at least reasonably suppose that 
during their reign they were under the supervision and 
molded in obedience to their view. And when in public 
councils in the Christian era, the corrupt paganistic parties 
voted in the sacred canon, we may reasonably conclude that 
the works of pagan writers would have a pretty fair chance 
in the general scramble. Allow us, in this connection, to 
reiterate the affirmation, that we are not warring upon the 
Bible, but simply opposing the dogma of plenary inspira- 
tion, and treating it as we treat all other books. All other 
writings are subjected to the ordeal of reason and common 
sense, (a) and we are permitted to retain the good and throw 
the bad away. Not so the Bible; accepting the doctrine 
that it is all of God and fully inspired, we are compelled to 
accept the whole, justify the most horrid atrocites, and be- 
lieve in the most debasing and licentious morals, or rather 
immoralities; because forsooth, God justified it, or at the 
least suffered it." 

a. "The evils from which men of our time are suffering 
are produced by the fact that the majority live without that 
which alone affords a rational guidance for human activity 
— without religion — not that religion which consists in be- 
lief in dogmas, in the fulfillment of rites affording a 
pleasant diversion, consolation, stimulant, hut that religion 
which establishes the relation of man to the all, to God, and 



214 MYSTERIES OP OSIKIS 

tlierefore gives a general higher direction to all human 
activity, and without which people stand on the plane of 
animals, and even lower than they. This evil, which is 
leading men to inevitable destruction, has manifested itself 
with special power in our time, because having lost all 
rational guidance in life, and having directed all efforts to 
discoveries and improvements principally in the sphere of 
technical knowledge, men of our time have developed in 
themselves enormous power over the forces of nature ; but, 
not having the guidance for the rational adaptation of this 
power, they naturally have used it for the satisfaction of 
their lowest and most animal propensities.* 

There is a widespread impression abroad that religion 
may be a permanent element in human nature. Many are 
telling us that it is a phase of thought, of feeling, of life, 
peculiar to the early and comparatively uncultivated stages 
of man's career; that it is something which the civilized 

man will progressively outgrow, and at last leave behind 

We do not think we need be specially troubled over this 
problem. We ought to be able to look at it dispassionately, 
because, if religion is only superstition, why then, of course, 
it ought to be outgrown If, on the other hand, re- 
ligion be divine, if it be essential to the highest and noblest 
human life, why then criticism and question will only verify 

this fact If you find some mark on the coin, if you 

find it on every one of the coins, you feel perfectly certain 
that there is some reality iru the die that stamps the coin, 
that accounts for that mark. It Avas not there for nothing: 
it did not simply happen. 

"So whenever you find any universal or permanent 
characteristic quality in human nature, or any other nature 
for that matter, you may feel perfectly certain that there is 
something in the universe that is real, that corresponds to it, 
that called it out, that made it. 

"You find man, then, universally a religious being. You 



*Leo Tolstoi, "Bethink Yourselves. 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 915 

find him everywhere believing that he is fronted with an 
invisible universe. On any theory you may choose to hold 
of this universe, it has made us what we are; and there 
must be — unless the universe is a lie— a reality correspond- 
ing to that which is universal and permanent and real in 
ourselves, because this universe has called these things into 
being, has made them what they are."* 

"The religious element contemplated from that elevated 
standpoint becomes thus the highest and noblest factor in 
man's education, the greatest potency in his civilization; 
while effete creeds and political selfishness are the greatest 
obstacles to human advance. State-craft and priest-craft 

are the very opposite of religion Our study here has 

shown the religious substance everywhere to be identical, 
eternal and divine, permeating the human heart whenever 

it throbs, feels and meditates* The logical result of our 

researches all pointing to the identical basis of the great 
religions, to the one doctrine unfolding since the dawn of 
humanity to this day. . . . Deep at the bottom of all the 
creeds flows the stream of the one eternal revelation, the one 
religion, the 'Word of God toi the mind of man.' 

"Let the Parsee wear his taavids, the Jew his phylac- 
teries, the Christian his cross, and the Moslem his crescent ; 
but let them all remember that these are forms and emblems, 
while the practical essence is, ' Thou shalt love thy neighbor 
as thyself,' equally emphasized and accentuated by Manu, 
Zoroaster, Buddha, Abraham, Moses, Socrates, Hillel, Jesus, 
Paul, Mohammed and the rest of the Saviours."* 

"When I speak to thee about God, do not think that I 
speak to thee about some object made of gold or silver. The 
God of whom I speak to thee, thou feelest Him in thy soul. 
Thou bearest Him in thyself, and by thy impure thought 
and loathsome acts thou defilest His image in thy soul. In 
the presence of a golden idol which thou regardest as God 

*Savage, "The Passing and the Permanent in Religion." 
*Maurice Fleugel, "The Zend-Avesta and Eastern Re- 
ligions. ' ' 



2l6 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

thou refrainest from doing aught that is unseemly, but in 
the presence of that God who in thee thyself sees and hears 
all, thou dost not blush when thou addictest thyself to thy 
disgusting thoughts and actions, 

"If only we remember that God in «s is the witness of all 
that we do and think, we should cease to sin, and God would 
incessantly abide in us. Let us then remember God, and 
think and talk of Him as often as possible.* 

PRIESTS TO GOD. 

Priests to God! In distant ages 

Did we tend the altar tire, 
Where the pyramids of sages 

Rose to say — "Lo! we aspire" — ? 
Were our hearts in consecration 

On those altars purified, 
That in future incarnation 

Ne'er the Faith should be denied? 
Priests to God ! The vaulted arches 

Of the heaven's lofty dome 
Form the temple-close, w r here marches 

Man to his eternal home. 
Let us bear our tapers, lighted 

At the altars of the East ; 
Keep the Faith that once we plighted, 

Clad in spotless robe of priest. 
Brothers, let us humbly labor 

As God's earthly temple throws 
Light divine on friend and neighbor, 

Till each looks aloft and knows ; — 
Knows the sanctity of living, 

Knows the Holy Place within, 
Knows the incense born of giving 

Life itself, to save from sin. 
Priests and Brothers, death may sever 

Ties that bind us to this sod, 
But the Temple stands forever, 

And we serve, as Priests to God. 



Ariel. 



*Epictctus. 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 917 

"We believe that the Bible is a compilation of the highest 
conceptions of truth current among the Hebrews; that the 
mysterious, and much of the historical parts, are written 
allegorically, that is to say, in riddles, but from the nature 
of the conditions under which it was written, it is neces- 
sarily mingled with much that is spurious and unworthy of 
our credence. The astronomical key explains many of its 
mysteries ; robs it of most of its horrors ; rescues many of its 
worthies from the foul stains resting upon their characters 
through a misapprehension of the meaning of the text. ~We 
know that many of the mysteries of these writings can only 
be solved by the initiates, for all these writings, while 
giving the history of the laws of nature, also contain an 
inner mystery. 

' ' The Scriptures contain many sayings and records many 
events that require the utmost credulity to believe them in 
the exact sense that orthodoxy gives. Amongthese, and which 
we explain, we may number Jonah's eventful sea voyage ; the 
sudden halting of the sun and moon in their rapid course, 
in obedience to Joshua's command; Elijah's flight to 
heaven in a chariot of 'fire; Baalim's ass suddenly endowed 
with human speech ; eating the flesh and drinking the blood 
of the Son of Man ; (a) honey bees building their cells and 
making their honey in the putrifying carcass of a dead lion, 
etc., all of which we believe to be true, but not in the ac- 
cepted sense. 

a. "When we realize that all that is manifest to our senses, 
as well as all that is not thus manifest, is the body of God, 
we are filled with love and reverence for all creation. As 
truly as the race of mankind is the human body of God, so 
truly is the brute kind the brute body of God, the plant 
kind is the plant body of God, and so on to the deeps 
even as to the heights of creation. Now when we eat of the 
food that nourishes the flesh, if we do so intelligently, we 
shall realize that we are, in this bread of the earth's fruit, 
actually breaking and absorbing into our body of the sub- 
stance of God. We shall eat with reverence and love for 



2J.8 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

the Creating Spirit, who thus brings forth into our sphere 
of life what is needed for our present support. We shall 
eat with thankfulness and a solemn joy, knowing that this 
is indeed the body of the Lord of Life given freely to us. 
Every meal we partake of will thus be sacramental; we 
shall receive this food as our one Holy Eucharist, as the 
body of Gk)d broken for us. Our eating will thus be a 
sacred function, ' ' a means of grace, ' ' even the breaking of 
the bread of "Unity and Brotherhood." "Song of the 
Cross. ' ' 

"The war in heaven has been a most fruitful theme for 
theological declaimers in all ages. The theological Tyros 
have been prating about this horrid rebellion in heaven, 
without for one moment dreaming from whence it came or 
what its origin might be. In the astronomical projection of 
the spheres, or the ancient kingdom of heaven, in ancient 
picture writing, you can see the conflict raging in all its 
fury, victory alternately perching upon the contending 
banners. At one time we observe the myrmidons of the pit, 
headed by their powerful leader, Baal-zebub, emerging 
from their imprisonment during the reign of summer; 
meeting the Sun of Righteousness at the commencement of 
winter in Scorpio, dragging him down for a brief period 
into the lower regions, from which triumphantly emerging 
at the vernal equinox, he puts his enemies to flight, con- 
signs them again to the bottomless pit, and reigns with un- 
disputed sway until the autumnal equinox renews the con- 
flict. 

"The ancients, like the Romanists of our day, canonized, 
i.e., deified, all their great leaders, both warriors and 
civilians. If a powerful genius arose, either to gladden or 
curse the world, the unsophisticated masses were ever ready 
to cry out, 'the gods have come down to us in the shape of 
men,' and consequently after their death, if not before, 
they must of necessity be deified; their foibles ofttimes 
buried with them, and their virtues and prowess exalted to 
the skies. 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 219 

"We have repeatedly said that the sun was treated as 
God in all symbolical writings; the revolutions of the sun 
were the joumeyings of God ; and the operations and effects 
of the sun upon the atmosphere and earth were the labors 
and conflicts, victories and defeats of God. Whenever, 
therefore, the life of any hero, seer, prophet or teacher was 
written, it was made to agree in all important particulars 
with the course and action of the sun, unless perchance, as 
is often the case, the hero of the tale is made to correspond 
with one of the planets, as did Abraham with Saturn; or 
with the moon, or some one of the stars, or clusters of stars 
within the outlines of one of the constellations. We have 
a case in the point of the mother of Jesus, who has been 
canonized by the Pope; her conception, her nativity, the 
annunciation, the assumption, etc., corresponding to the 
course of the constellation Virgo in her various relations 
to the sun. 

"The above explanation gives us the true interpretation 
of the miracles. attendant upon the lives of Baalim, Jonah, 
Sampson and Elijah, and so many of the actions of Jesus 
during his eventful and checkered life corresponds with the 
renowned labors of the sun, that the candid mind that 
masters the subject can scarcely resist the conclusion that 
his biographers have adopted the same method that every- 
where prevailed at that period and this is indeed true. The 
triune character ascribed to God also facilitates this 
peculiar style of teaching. God (the sun) in his ascension 
toward the summer solstice, and from thence like Elijah to 
heaven (symbolically of course), lets his mantle fall upon 
the descending sun; or Aleim, the rising Gods, give their 
orders to Jonah (I-on-es) to go away down south and 
preach repentance to the Ninevites. This hyperbolical 
method of writing may appear so strange to the matter-of- 
fact, or prosaic, inhabitants of this western world in the 
nineteenth century, that the mass of common readers must 
feel disposed to reject the testimony on this subject. The 
masses may, as did the masses in ancient times, reject the 



220 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

whole thing in honest ignorance, but all learned men know 
that this method of teaching by, or in parables, was the 
universal mode in ancient times, and that it is still per- 
petuated in the east, although much of the art is lost. It is 
said that Jesus always adopted this method while publicly 
preaching. Of this character are Aesop's fables; Ovid's 
metamorphoses, Arabian night entertainments; the various 
histories of the Greek, and of all the ancient gods ; and the 
various amours of those gods of heathendom were the same 
in character as were the amours of the patriarchs, of David 
and Solomon, and are all to be explained by this universal 
method of describing the conjunction of the sun, moon, and 
starry hosts, under the figure of individual gods, kings, 
patriarchs, and the various leading men of the realm. 

"The main feature of this method of teaching consists in 
first stating a self-evident falsehood, of a kind that none but 
children will believe, and the wrapping up a grand truth 
inside, in the shape of a moral. After we have extracted 
the moral we can throw, the wrapper away. Nobody be- 
lieves that the beasts of the field held councils, as described 
by Aesop ; or that the trees of the forest asked the vine to 
come and be the king over them, as says the Bible ; neither 
would we believe in the supernatural orthodox monstrosi- 
ties that elsewhere occur in the Scriptures, unless we had 
been drilled into it from childhood, but would be able to 
extract the moral meaning instead of feeding upon the 
coarse wrapper in which it was enveloped. The universal 
religious dyspepsia that so abounds in the Church is to be 
traced directly to this habit of feeding upon the external 
covering and allowing the mner and sublime truths to pass 
unknown. 

"Linguists teach us that man began to talk in mono- 
sylables, and it is a favorite employment with some, to 
analyze words and find their roots. A knowledge of this 
art will assist us wonderfully in discovering the hidden 
sense of biblical allegorical writing; and although a limited 
knowledge of ancient literature opens up to us a vast 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION". 221 

amount of information, yet a more thorough acquaintance 
with Oriental languages would greatly facilitate any re- 
searches in this interesting field of study. It has been 
ascertained that the most ancient name for God, or the sun, 
in Egypt was On, in the Chaldaic Bel or Baal, in Phonicia 
the same, in Hebrew El, etc. If they addressed him as a 
father, they would use the word Am or Ab. Ad denoted 
Lord; es, the great fire, the enlightener. The emblem of 
deity, symbolically written, was I, or a pillar, a column, to 
denote that he stood erect alone, without any external sup- 
port. In examining the allegorical, and much of the his- 
torical parts of the Bible, the student, if intelligent, cannot 
fail to observe the frequent use made of these prominent 
monosyllables, Ad-am, Ab-el, El-i, El-i-jah (jah, most high). 
In most cases one of these monosyllables forms the base, or 
root of the word, with such prefixes and suffixes as the case 
demands. Thus in the war in heaven, the good angels 
have their names ending El, the Hebrew; and the fallen 
ones having names ending in On, the Egyptian term for 
the sun ; because, to the Jew, Egypt always represented the 
lower regions, while Canan corresponds to heaven. The 
good angels were Micha-el, Gabra-el, Isra-el, etc.; but the 
fallen had the Egyptian name, as the Drag-on, Ab-add-on, 
and Ap-olly-on. According to John's Revelations, Abaddon 
is Hebrew, and Apollyon Greek (Apollo). We have also 
Babyl-on, Armahed-on, etc. The Jew also took the portrait 
of the sacred bull of Egypt (Taurus) to make their Devil 
from, representing him with horns and cloven hoofs; and 
Aries (the lamb) as their representative of God, — simply 
another form of the same names and the same symbols, and 
one might say, the same idol worship. Sometimes the Jews 
poached upon the Chaldeans, for a lay figure from which to 
paint his Satanic Majesty, and called him Baal-sebub, or 
Baal-ial (Belial), although they highly honored one of 
them, Baal Molochi-sudec, or Moloch-zedec (Melchisedec), 
as an everlasting priest. 

"Many names of the prophets begin or end in el, as 



222 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

EM, El-i-sha, El-i-jah, Dan-i-el, Ezek-i-el; and many of 
them correspond to, or are compounded from other names 
of God that have been lost, or are hidden in languages 
known to but few. The name of Joshua commences with 
Io, the root of Jehovah, Jupiter, Jovem, etc. (J is a modern 
or Latin letter, and a substitute for I.) Eve is the feminine 
of Jove, sometimes called Heve in the Greek pantheon. The 
most important bearing that the analysis of words has upon 
this question, consists in the key it furnishes to the names 
given to God. The translation gives no correct idea of the 
titles by which God was addressed in the Bible. It is known 
that Jupiter, Adonism and Apollo were Greek gods; that 
Baal was the Chaldean, and Chemosh the Ammonian god. 
But it never enters the thoughts of the common reader that 
Adonis, Baal, Chemosh, On and Eloim are placed on the 
same footing in the Bible with Jehovah. 'The Eloh-im, the 
plural of EI or Eloi, were the creators in the first chapter 
of Genesis. The first, and the only proper name given to 
the Elohim, was that unpronounceable name called 
Jehovah; in Hebrew spelled with four consonants, equiva- 
lent to Ihvh. This unpronounceable name is still held 
sacred in several of the successors to the Ancient Orders or 
Priesthood and there is a word, which is supposed to be lost, 
but which is not lost. 

"In the ancient Hebrew there were no written vowels, 
and for want of them much time was necessarily consumed 
in teaching the student the way to pronounce each word. 
This fact accounts for much of the confusion that rests 
upon the whole question. The names Dan and God were 
formerly spelled without any vowel, and as the language 
became a dead language before the modern points were in- 
vented, probably no man knows to this day whether those 
names: were not pronounced with some other one of the 
vowel sounds. God told Moses that he appeared to ths 
patriarchs as Baal-Tsaddi, and that they never knew him 
by his name Jehovah. Baal-Tsaddi is translated God 
Almighty. Why ? A Jew will no more pronounce the name 



OB EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 24$ 

Jehovah in the hearing of a Gentile, than a Mason will 
give the grand omnific substitute of Masonry in the hear- 
ing of an outsider. Ask a Jew the name of his G-od and he 
will tell you Adonaye, thus drawing out the possessive case 
of Adonis, the Greek God. Why! Simply because the 
Hebrew Bible makes Adonis equal to Jehovah, if not 
synonymous. Thus, when David says, ' the Lord said to my 
Lord,' the Hebrew reads, 'Jehovah said unto Ad-on-is.' " 



Chapteb VIII. 

"There is nothing more mysterious in the Bible than the 
cherubim; yet there is nothing that more certainly con- 
nects Egyptian worship with the Jewish than does this same 
mysterious creature with his four faces. Moses made an ark 
in imitation of a certain chest that the Egyptians carried 
about with them in their solemn processions, when they cele- 
brated the feast in commemoration of the ancient state of 
mankind. In this chest they deposited the sorry fruits and 
grains that their ancestors fed upon when in a barbarous 
state. On each end of this chest, called the Ark of the 
Covenant,* was placed a cherub, each facing the other, with 
their wings lifted up on high, covering the mercy seat. 
Isaiah calls them the seraphims. Ezekiel gives them four 
wings each, John six. Wings represent the flight of time, 
and John's six to each were symbolical of the twenty-four 



*There is no question but that the Jewish Ark of the 
Covenant found its model in the Egyptian Oraeieship ; that 
the chest held so sacred as the repository of nameless 
treasures carried about in the celebration of Bacchic rites, 
is paraphrased from a similar instrument used in the Osirie 
mysteries, whilst the resemblance between the solar and 
phallic emblems, crosses, obelisks, pyramids, and temple 
services of India and Egypt, are too obvious to escape the 
notiee of the most superficial observer. The sequence of 
descent from the rites performed at Benares to those oi 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. *2$ 

hours, as were also the four-and-twenty elders, denoting the 
past, as Mahomet's black-eyed Houris (hours) were em- 
blematical of the future or young hours. The singular 
number of cherubim is cherub ; the singular of seraphim is 
seraph. The first is the name of an ox or calf, the latter the 
name of a serpent; and although it may seem ludicrous 
enough to fill the heavens with oxen and serpents, and make 
them common carriers of the Almighty, we read in Psalms, 
'He rode upon a cherub and did fly;' yet with an 
astronomical key, we shall be able to show the fitness of the 
phrase, and that these same serpents and oxen are 
peculiarly adapted to be the angels or messengers of the 
Almighty, swift to do his will. Ezekiel in his first descrip- 
tion of the cherubim, gives them those ever recurring four 
faces; the face of an ox, a lion, an eagle, and a man. In his 
second description he gives the same, except that the face 
of a cherub takes the place of the ox, proving the names to 
be synonymous. In Revelations the four beasts are distinct 
or separate, while in the other descriptions the four faces 
belong to one animal, although described in the plural 
number. The key to the whole mystery is this : The king- 
dom of heaven was always circular, when among the stars; 
and the wheels within wheels of Ezekiel were the orbits of 
the sun, moon and planets. When the kingdom of heaven 
was among men, as in the Jewish encampment, it was a 
square, and those four beasts each occupied the angles, or 
rather were the figures that flaunted upon the banners of 
the royal tribes, and constituted the four angels standing 
upon the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds 



Heliopolis, and from thence to Eleusis, may be clearly 
traced by the student; in a word, whilst. India may be re- 
garded as the first child of the fatherland of myths and 
sacred mysteries — Atlantis, the entire East, including 
Egypt, once splendid Babj'Ionia, Palestine, Persia, C4reece 
and Pome, all may be regarded avS tributary nations, 
amongst whom the ages have parted the garments of the 
great Hindoo Messiah, the oft reincarnated original of all 
lh<, worshipped mii^gods of antiquity. 



225 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

of heaven (Revelations). These four beasts were the con- 
stellations that had their location at the commencement of 
the four seasons. The ox held the winds of spring, the lion 
the winds of summer, etc. They divided the heavens into 
quarters, two belonging at the solstices and two at the 
equinoxes. The ox gave his name to the four royal beasts 
or cherubim, because he was the principal and ushered in 
the reign of summer ; in the same manner, and for the same 
reason, that Palestine was called Judea from Judah, viz: 
for convenience. 

"One of the grand points of interest to the ancients was 
the autumnal equinox. This was the grand festival season, 
when, after the day of atonement (at-one-ment), the Jews, 
together with other nations, held their feasts of the taber- 
nacles, or vine feast, the crowning feast of the year, if we 
except that of the vernal equinox or passover. The day of 
atonement occurred in the precise day of the equinox, or 
balancing of the days and nights, when they were equal in 
length, and God or nature equalized all things, rewarded 
the industrious with plenty and sent the idler empty away. 
The ffeast of tabernacles was the same as the feast of 
Bacchus of the Gentiles. At this feast both Jew and Gen- 
tile always imitated old Noah in the too free use of wine. 
Just at this point in the heavens we find Scorpio, the 
Egyptian serpent, and at the period of time when these 
cherubim were seen by the prophets, Scorpio held the same 
relation to the harvest and vintage home, that the ox did to 
the reign of spring; but the ox represented the covenant of 
works, Scorpio the covenant of Grace. The query here 
arises, why the head of the eagle occupies the place belong- 
ing to the serpent. That matter must be explained by a 
reference to the precession of the equinoxes. We have 
stated that the equinoxes were in the ox and scorpion when 
these cherubim were described by the prophets. The vernal 
equinox is now in the sign of the lamb, and in the constella- 
tion of the fishes. The sun crosses the equator at a point 
about one hundred rods distant from the place at which it 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 2 27 

crossed the preceding year; consequently, the equinox js ap- 
proaching or coming down into the wintry constellations. 
At this rate of travel, it passes through one sign of thirty 
degrees in about 2140 years. By this process the constella- 
tions of Aries, Pisces, etc., are ascending into the region of 
light, and Scorpio, Libra, etc., are descending into the land 
of darkness, or the bottomless pit. It was thus that the old 
serpent, the dragon, fell from heaven and became the leader 
up of the hosts of hell. The lamb is now the leader up of 
the hosts of heaven, and he and the serpent are the most 
deadly antagonists. 

"When Jacob gave his blessing to the twelve patriarchs, 
he assigned the serpent to Dan : 'Dan is a serpent, an adder 
in the path. ' But about this time the serpent fell below the 
equinox, became a sign of evil import and Dan rejected him 
for his monogram because Scorpio was the sign accursed, 
and he took for the figure upon his banner Aquila, or the 
eagle, a constellation nearly north, having in his neck the 
large star Altair, — a star that is on the horizon at the same 
period of time with the star Antares, in the heart of 
Scorpio. "When Scorpio occupied the position in the heavens 
that the balance now holds at the equinox, the serpent held 
the most prominent position as a symbol of life among the 
animal creation, and as some nations believed the covenant 
of grace, or the autumnal, to be superior to the covenant 
of works (even as do many of the religionists of our day), 
they called the whole by the name serpents, or rather sera- 
phim. Isaiah saw his cherubim in Judea, the land of ser- 
pents and generations of vipers (Christ), and Ezckiel saw 
his while in captivity in Chaldea, when the ox was more 
highly prized. 

"By this same process of change, Scorpio will yet reach 
the position now held by the lamb; be transformed into an 
angel of light, and become the leader up of the heavenly 
hosts, while Virgo, Leo, and the whole heavenly constella- 
tions, one by one, will fall, as did Satan (Saturn) like 
lightening from heaven. Modern astronomers, however, 



228 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

have determined to keep the old serpent in the bottomless 
pit, by making the signs of the constellations of Aries and 
Libra follow the equinoxes in their precession. By this 
means the lamb will ever be the leader up of the heavenly 
hosts in the vernal equinox, crossification at passover,* and 
the astronomical hierophant will always be enabled to say 
to the uniniated: 'Behold the lamb of God,t that taketh 
*i way the inequalities of the wintry world.' The precession 
has thrown some of the ceremonies of the modern Church 
out of their proper place, because of the confusion that 
ignorance has brought in the Churches. Lent is in point; 
the observers of this fast having lost its origin and purport, 
do not know when it ought to begin or end. 

"But to return to the cherubim. John, the revelator, saw 
the four beasts around the throne, and a lamb in the midst 
of the throne, representing the vernal equinox in Aries, 
because the lamb was the constellation into which the sun 
came when he triumphantly entered his kingdom, having 
overcome the powers of darkness and cold in winter, and 
ascended the throne of his glory. 

"When Jacob blessed his twelve sons he gave to each the 
peculiarity of one. of the constellations. Judah had the 
lion; Reuben, unstable as water, had Aquarius, the water 
bearer; Dan the serpent; Issachar the crab. The phrase 
'Issachar is a strong ass,' is explained by the fact that there 
are two stars in Cancer called the two asses. 'Joseph is a 
fruitful bough, whose branches have gone over the wall,* 



*The vernal equinox is said to be in Aries, although in 
fact it is in Pisces, that is, in the sign of Aries, but the 
constellation of Pisces. At a period of time quite remote, 
the vernal equinox will again be in Scorpio, and he will 
regain his lost estate, although astronomers probably will 
mark the sign, of Aries in Scorpio, and the masses will sup- 
pose that the vernal equinox is in the lamb, unless the 
knowledge of astronomy covers the earth as the waters 
cover the great deep. Possibly a new sciwol will arise to 
teach the truth. 

i'The Lamb was God's monogram. 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 229 

represents him in November (Sagittarius), when the vine 
had grown to its fullest extent, 'His bow abode in 
strength, ' is explained by a reference to the constellation, 
in which he is drawing his bow. The story of the coat of 
many colors is a parable, in which was described the 
variegated beauty of the forest in November, 4000 years 
ago. This beautiful coat excited the envy of the eleven 
months, and he was sent into Egypt by falling below the 
intersection of the equator and ecleptic. Parabolically, 'the 
five wintry constellations were Egypt and Sodom. These 
tribes represented the twelve signs of the zodiac, and they 
had a sister named Dinh, who was, correspondingly of 
course, the moon (Isis). The same name, spelled some- 
what differently, is Diana of the Greeks, who, as all scholars 
know, was the moon, and her likeness as she draws her bow, 
is to be seen when the moon is at her full, for Diana was a 
mighty huntress. The cherubim was a prominent symbol 
among the ancient nations. One has been dug up from 
among the ruins of Ninevah, having three of the four faces 
described by John and Ezekiel. When rude winter had ex- 
pended his fury upon the desolated earth, and had been 
compelled to yield his dominion to gentle spring, the ox or 
calf (which then occupied the position now held by the 
lamb) became lord of the ascent and the leader up of the 
heavenly hosts; and when balmy spring, the season of 
flowers, gave place to summer, with its fierce heat, its fruits 
and smiling meads, the dominion passed to raging Leo, or 
the lion, and he in turn became the leader, and marshalled 
his starry phalanx upon the heavenly plains. And thus in 
turn, as each succeeding season followed his predecessor, 
the dominion passed to the eagle, and then to the water 
bearer, who was represented in the cherubim by the face of 
a man. These beasts, as before stated, were on the four 
banners of the royal tribes of Israel. Combined into one, 
or formed into the cherubim, they became the representa- 
tive of the silent flowing year. Ezekiel's cherubim had a 
calf's foot, to denote the point on the meridian where the 



230 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

sim crossed over at the vernal equinox. Although the 
various nations held the cherubim in such high esteem, they 
generally selected one of the four beasts as the object of 
special worship. Thus the ox was worshipped in Egypt, 
India and Britain, China and Japan, Persia, Greece and 
Peru. As the ox was the predominating figure in the 
cherubim, so it was the most universal symbol of idolatry, 
and was frequently worshipped in a compound form. He 
was the emblem of Noah or the great father, and the ark 
was called Ken-Taurus, the stimulator of the bull. He was 
worshipped with splendid rites when the sun was in Taurus. 
A bull was also the well-known symbol of Bacchus, who is 
styled in the orphic hymns 'the deity with two horns, 
having the head of a bull.' The lion was adored in the 
east and in the west, by the Egyptians and the Mexicans, as 
a most powerful divinity. The same animal was emblem- 
atical of the sun in Tartary and Persia; and hence, on the 
national banner of Persia a lion was emblazoned, with the 
sun rising from his back.* 

"The sovereigns of Persia have for many centuries pre- 
served as the peculiar arms of their country, the sign of 
the figure of Sol in the constellation of Leo; and this device, 
which exhibits a lion couchant and the sun rising at his 
back, has not only been sculptured upon their palaces and 
embroidered upon their banners, but has been converted 
into an order, which in the form of gold and silver medals 



*Here we must bear in mind that the bull had the same 
meaning as did the phallus, for it was the sjmibol of the 
mighty generative power in its one respect and of the re- 
generative power in its other aspect. The sun was the 
symbol of God, and since God cannot people the world with- 
out this power, it is easy for the student to see into the 
mystery of these two, for neither can exist, without the 
other. God cannot people the world without the generative 
force or without the bull or phallus and if the world is not 
peopled heaven cannot be peopled with immortals. Herein 
lies the great mystery of all religious beliefs, to solve the 
mystery is to be immortal. 



Oft EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 2 3 J 

have been given to those who have distinguished themselves 
against the enemies of their country. As the chief increase 
of the Nile occurred when the sun was passing through Leo, 
the Egyptians made the lion the type of an inundation. 
All effusions of water were specified by this characteristic; 
and from this has come the custom of passing the water 
from reservoirs and fountains through the mouth of a 
sculptured lion. 

"The eagle was sacred to the sun in many countries, 
particularly in some parts of Egypt, Greece and Persia. 
In the Bible the king of Babylon is termed an eagle. It was 
reputed to have fed Jupiter with nectar in the Cretan cave, 
and was certainly an emblem of his dominion. With the 
British Druids it formed a symbol of their supreme God; 
it was embroidered on the consecrated banner of the Mexi- 
can princes; and the common ensign of the Roman legions 
was the golden eagle." 

The man, or idol in human shape, was worshipped all 
over the world; for which custom this reason has been as- 
signed by Porphiry, when charged with worshipping God 
under the figure of a man. He allowed the deity to be in- 
visible but thought him well represented in that form ; not 
because he is like him in external shape, but because that 
which is divine is also rational. 

Dr. Reese remarks that "cherub or cherubim in Hebrew 
is sometimes taken from a calf or ox. In Syraic and Qhal- 
daic the word cherub signifies to till or plough. According 
to Grotius, the cherubim were figures resembling a calf. 
Bochart and Spencer think they were similar to an Ox. 
The figure of a cherubim was not always uniform, since they 
are differently described in the shapes of men, eagles, oxen, 
lions, and a composition of all these figures put together. 
After all the suggestions and conjectures of learned persons, 
it still remains to be determined what these emblematical 
figures were intended to represent." If such men as Dr. 
Reese would give ancient symbolism a candid investigation 
they would not manifest their ignorance by saying: "It 



232 MYSTERIES OF OSIftlS 

remains to be determined what they were intended to repre- 
sent." The various cherubim differed much in their form 
and general appearance, the most common form having 
been the ox. The brazen laver of Solomon's Temple rested 
upon twelve oxen, representing the twelve constellations. 
Moses was such a firm believer in the lamb (Christie) em- 
blem, that the cherubim upon the mercy seat had the face of 
a lamb, as he was directed to set them on the lid of the ark 
facing each other over the mercy seat ; the vernal equinox 
having passed into the lamb, consequently he had become 
the leader up of the heavenly hosts. After the death of 
Joshua the Jews relapsed into semi-barbarism and lost the 
knowledge of this science, and the lamb was not perpetu- 
ated in the nation as the leader. After the Babylonish 
captivity, Ezekiel and Daniel revived the system, but as the 
Chaldeans had retained the ox, he still continued to figure 
as lord of the ascendant in the cherubim which they saw. 
In the New Testament era the lamb (Christie spirit) was 
introduced again, but was placed by John in the midst of 
the other beasts, because the ox had become too sacred to be 
displaced and not because it should not have been displaced. 
The cherubim that has been exhumed at Ninevah had but 
three faces, it being deficient in the face of the man, thus 
representing the period when there would be no winter, in 
other words, the mystery of the time when the lamb and the 
serpent would be friends, the prophecy of the millinium. 
But be their forms ever so varied, the cherubim was an 
astronomical figure or symbol representing time, or the 
different eras of evolutions. This symbol is capable of a 
great variety of applications and adaptations to the de- 
mands of the curious; consequently it formed the basis of 
an almost endless variety of parables and riddles, and as- 
sisted the Revelator most wonderfully in making up the 
Apocalypse. The encampment of the Israelites, which was 
in the form of a hollow square, the four royal tribes at the 
angles of each had these four beasts emblazoned on their 
banners. The earth was then supposed, by the masses and 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. *3$ 

many of the leaders, to be an oblong square, stationary, 
and the grand centre of the universe. By turning to the 
49th chapter of Genesis, the reader will find the record of 
the blessings bestowed by Jacob upon his twelve sons. In 
that record all may learn which were the royal tribes, and 
what constellation in the zodiac each tribe represents. 

In the arrangement of the encampment by Moses (Num- 
bers, chapter 2), the blunder was committed by placing 
Reuben in the south side, or next to Judah. Judah was the 
lion's whelp, and had the east assigned to him. According 
to the science, the lion being in the summer solstice, the 
south would have been his appropriate position ; but as he 
constituted the "empire state" of the nation they placed 
him in van as they were travelling eastwardly. Reuben be- 
longed opposite, as the water-bearer, his monogram or pre- 
siding genius was in January, opposite Judah or July. 
Moses never arranged the tribes as they are described, un- 
less, as some believe, Reuben had exchanged banners with 
Ephraim. 

"We have said that the cherubim divided the heavens 
into four equal parts. These points of division are marked 
by four principal stars, one in each of the four beasts, viz : 
Aldebaran, in the head of the bull of April; this star 
marked the point of the vernal equinox when the plani- 
sphere was projected, or when the bull or ox became the 
lord of the ascendant. The star Regulus, in the heart of the 
lion, marked the summer solstice. Antares, in the heart of 
the scorpion, marked the autumnal equinox in the old 
Chaldean and Egyptian zodiacs, but Dan, and others re- 
jected Scorpio because it had become the sign accursed, and 
in its place adopted Aquila, the eagle, having the star 
Altair for its emblem. The star Fomalhaut, in the eye of 
the great southern fish, formerly reckoned in the constella- 
tion Aquarius, and united with it by the river Aquarius, 
marks the point of the winter solstice. It was the custom in 
ancient times, and even in comparatively modern times, to 
place the figures of the cherubic animals on the title pages 



234 MYSTERIES OE OSIRIS 

of their books to indicate the subject therein contained. 
For an example: if the cherubim had prefaced the second 
chapter of Genesis commencing at the fourth verse, at 
which the book should begin: 'these are the generations of 
the heavens/ etc., they would thus indicate that allegorical 
astronomy was to be found on its pages. The knowledge 
of the cherubim, as we have repeatedly shown, was by no 
means original with Moses and the Jews, for we find them 
often alluded to in the ancient Chaldean writings as the 
cherubim of the heavens, and they often treat of the heaven 
of the cherubim. 

"The ancient Egyptians describe four sacred animals, 
which Clemens Alexandrinus tells us were carried like those 
of the Israelites, at the head of the processions; and he 
tells us they represented, the four seasons, of which animals 
the eagle was one. ?ote on American eagle. 

"In the Persian zendavesta we are told of the ancient 
Persian cherubim, with the four principal stars which 
watched over the four corners of the world, which were the 
four stars which determine the four seasons or solstices. In 
Daniel's vision of the four beasts he followed the Persian 
projection of the spheres. In the earlier editions of the 
four Gospels, the lion was the vignette of Matthew ; the bull 
faced the title page of Luke; the face of a man, or Aquarius, 
was the vignette of Mark, and the eagle was the frontis- 
piece of John. In John's vision of the white throne and the 
four beasts (Revelations, chapter 4), the cherubic beasts, 
including the calf, were 'in the midst of the throne and 
round about the throne;' but in the fifth chapter he saw 
another beast in the midst of the four beasts, even a lamb, 
as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes. 
These beasts had eyes before and behind, representing the 
stare, while the seven horns and seven eyes of the lamb are 
the seven planets. On the large stained window of old 
Trinity Church, on Broadway, New York City, may be seen 
the four Evangelists, each with his cherubic beasts ; Matthew 
with his lion, Luke with his bull, Mark with his man, and 



Ofe EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 235 

John with his eagle. 

' ' Thus from the earliest ages, and throughout the various 
nations of the earth, these four beasts have been the sacred 
emblems of religion. They have occupied the foreground 
of every ancient system ; they were the Elohim that, accord- 
ing to Genesis, created or renovated the earth; they were 
the cherubim upon the mercy seat; they were the beasts 
most prominent in the visions of the prophets throughout 
the Old and New Testaments. They constituted the coat of 
arms of the Evangelist, and last of all the most puisant 
old Trinity, the mother of a haughty brood of pagan 
churches in New York City, thus heralds forth her paganism 
by giving these four living creatures a most prominent seat 
in her synagogue. 

"And without even having an idea of their symbolism, 
or the inner meaning of what they teach to mankind had 
she eyes to see. ' ' 



Chapter IX. 

Thus far we have been gleaning from all religions and 
forms of belief in order to show that every form of re- 
ligion, and every doctrine, has always had its counterpart 
in various parts of the world, and that they are all the 
children of one common parent. Theologians are com- 
pelled to admit that many of the doctrines and forms of the 
ancients are identical with the Christian system, but they 
always contend that the ancients gathered their ideas from 
the Jews or Christians. This we have proven to be abso- 
lutely false, for these ideas were old centuries before there 
was a Jewish faith. 

In teaching theology in our colleges, it is not to be sup- 
posed that the student will go beyond the Greek and Roman 
Church, and thus when there appears any similarity it is 
disposed of in a summary manner. "We have therefore been 
purposely bringing the evidence from a period of time far 
anterior to the Jewish and Christian era, In fact all of the 
Greek and Roman paganism was borrowed from the Egyp- 
tians and what is far the worst of the matter is the fact that 
they have borrowed these symbolisms without given credit 
and without knowing anything of the inner spirit and the 
mighty and sublime truths which the Egyptians knew and 
understood so ivell. 

Two nations of the East claim David and Solomon as 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 237 

their ancient kings, and endow them with the same quali- 
ties. The Arabs of the desert, in their national legends, 
recount the military prowess of the one and the great wis- 
dom of the other. A large proportion of the history of each 
is not fabulous, is written according to the pattern shown 
to and by the learned in the mount or high places, where 
the schools initiated their followers in the mysteries of the 
"kingdom of heaven." David's wars, concubinage, and 
wicked amours with Bath-Sheba, and that fairest virgin of 
all Israel, were the mystical personifications of the con- 
junctions of the sun, moon and starry hosts and also 
sliad-owed forth the grand secret of power taught in the 
mysteries of initiation, which was the inner and never even 
hinted at to the masses except by Moses and then only to be 
cast aside and the emblem of the mysteries worshipped. *~ 

' ' David in his royal state, was the sun of the nation over 
which he reigned, and the conjunction of the sun with the 
lesser orbs were related as though they were the actions of 
men and women. His conflicts, even if some of them were 
real, were amplified to correspond to the conflicts of the 
sun with the frosts of winter, and his victories made to 
compare in brilliancy with the complete triumph of the 
sun in the summer solstice. The kings whom he subdued 
represented or were the wintry constellations, with their 
numerous starry hosts, who were put down by David (the 
sun) when he ascended the throne of Es-ra-el and reigned 
in power in the season of plenty. His intrigue with Bath- 
Shcba* means nothing more or less than the entrance of the 
sun into the constellation of Virgo, the prolific mother of so 
many children, who are always of the royal lineage. Her 



*Bath is daughter, Sheba is seven ; Bath-Sheba was the 
daughter or virgin of the seven summer constellations. The 
Queen of Sheba was the same virgin, the queen of the same 
seven ;that story being another allegory. There were hum an 3 
in this name and their life is symbolized hy this legend. In- 
stance: the son of the Queen of Sheba being the natural son 
of Solomon. 



238 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

husband Uriah- (Ur-i-ah), the high or exalted light, is the 
same constellation (Youseppe) that is always on the right 
of the virgin, and alluded to when treating on Paradise in a 
former chapter. Bath-Sheba was the daughter of El-i-am 
(the sun, the self-existing, father) ; she was also the mother 
of Sol-om-on (the name of the sun in three languages), con- 
taining the trinity of deity in his own name ; also the grand 
omnific word, and was thus from his peculiar lineage, viz: 
child of the sun by the harvest queen, the virgin of August, 
who yearly gives birth to a royal child and yet ever retains 
her virginity, — fitted for a presiding genius of the Masons, 
for wisdom personified, and as a household of all the eastern 
nations. 

"The allegory representing David in his old age as feeble 
and losing his heart, to remedy which the fairest virgin in 
all Es-ra-el was brought to him, was invented to explain a 
phenomena in nature but little understood at the time.* 
The summer solstice was then in Leo, but August, where 
Virgo has her domicile, was so much hotter than June, that 
in the then infancy of natural science the learned explained 
it, as theology has always explained difficulties, by wrap- 
ping it up in a myth. They therefore said that the heat of 
the virgin of August was added to the rays of the sun to 
perpetuate his heat as he was travelling down toward 
winter. In the name of this virgin we also find the root of 
the name 01 the sun in three dialects. It is said that old 
David was covered with more clothing by his servants 
before the virgin's heat was added to his, denoting that 
even the clothing of a bounteous harvest could not per- 
petuate his heat. The story of Tamar, the daughter of 
David, ravished by her own brother, seems to be a repro- 



*This also has an inner meaning which was taught in the 
priesthood to the initiates alone. It was never hinted at to 
the masses. It has reference to the same mystery as the 
''Elixir of Youth" of the old Alchemists and therein is 
taught the mystery of the prolongation of life by many 
years. 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 239 

duction of the same allegory, for like Joseph, she had a 
dress of variegated colors, denoting the beauty of the land- 
scape in the harvest month. 

"We have another personification of the travels and con- 
flicts of the sun in the history of Samson. Samson in 
Hebrew means light. His great strength lay in his hair, 
just as the strength of the sun is in his rays, for the sun 
shorn of his locks is almost powerless. Samson's great 
strength manifested itself in Leo at the summer solstice, 
when he slew the lion by absorbing him in his rays ; he was 
then on his way down to Timnah; on his return, after a 
period going down to Timnah again, he finds honey in the 
carcass and fed upon it. The explanation of this is to be 
found in the fact that in ancient maps of the heavens Leo 
was represented with bees passing in and out of his mouth ; 
even this, however, is not necessary to the proof, for Leo, 
about 4000 years ago, was the honey month or the season 
of the greatest profusion of flowers. Is it to be supposed 
that the honey bees ever were silly enough to build their 
cells and commence laying up their winter's store in the 
decomposing carcass of a lion, or if not decomposing, in one 
that would be speedily devoured by wild beasts? If, in 
re-ply to this, some superstitious one exclaims: "All things 
are possible with God," wo answer, we do not think it pos- 
sible to create bees so silly. Samson after the great exploit 
goes to Gaza (Goat of December), and at midnight (Christ- 
mas morn), takes away the gates and carries them upon his 
shoulders up to the top of a hill that was before Hebr-on. 
'Afterwards he is shorn of his locks just at the time that he 
leaves the lap of Delilah (Virgo). The Bible says he was 
shorn of his seven locks ; these seven were the seven warm 
months wherein the strength of the sun lay; having lost 
these seven months, winter — the signs of evil import (Phil- 
istia), put out his eyes, and he was carried blind down to 
Gaza into the depth of winter, and was there in prison. 
Now it came to pass that as the lords of the Philistines met 
in the temple of Dag-on, Samson took hold of the pillars of 



24O MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

the temple and slew more at his death than during his life. 
These pillars of the temple were the same as the posts of 
the gate that he carried away at a former period ; but here 
the scenery or adjuncts, or the external covering of the 
same story are changed. In the former case when he carried 
away the gates the winter represents the sun as sleeping, 
and at the exact moment of the winter solstice arising from 
his slumber to inaugurate the new year, and at midnight, 
or exactly twenty minutes after, tearing down the gates of 
winter, or frost, and taking them on his shoulders up to the 
hill Hebr-on, or the vernal equinox. In this the writer 
represents the expiring year in Dagon (the fish god), or the 
constellation of the fishes, as destroying the power of winter, 
because in his death he breaks the power of the old year 
and gives place to the new year's sun, who is born in three 
days after his death ; for it must needs be that the sun of 
the old year dies that he may rise again, and thus fulfill all 
righteousness. In this we again see foreshadowed the- 
mystery of the Christ and that the life of Jesus was built 
upon this symbolism. As often stated, Jesus did live and 
he did live much of the life claimed for him, but said life is 
dramatised after the ancient sun legend. 

"In mystic or parable writing the ancients made use of 
fictitious names, as do our modern writers of romance or 
tales. But a very common method in vogue among them 
consisted in using the names of the sun, as before remarked, 
compounded often threefold to denote the trinity, but 
whereas a continued repetition of the same name would ex- 
plain the riddle without the necessity . of ploughing with 
Samson's heifer (Taurus), therefore the name itself was 
commonly hidden under the veil of a foreign language, or 
by transposing the roots or monosyllables. "With our limited 
knowledge of ancient languages we are struck with the 
frequent recurrence of these names of the sun in some of the 
dialects with which we are acquainted; a better acquaint- 
ance with those idioms would add vastly to the stock of our 
knowledge. Om, On, Ah, Ad, Am, Ac, Io, El, Es, I-ah, or 



OR EGYPTIAN" INITIATION. 241 

Jah, and some others, as has been stated, are the simple 
names of the sun or God. Let us apply this test to the 
story of Samson, and although it may appear imaginative, 
it will assist us in analyzing other words. Manoah was the 
father of Samson. Transpose the first two syllables and we 
have Am-on-ah, viz: the father, being, most high. Take 
from Samson the veil of the letter S repeated, and you have 
Am-On. Take from Delilah the letter D and we have 
El-il-ah, the name of the sun repeated, ending in ah, the 
same ending as has Jehovah. 

' ' The story of the foxes is a bungling translation. The 
word foxes and sheaves are so nearly alike in the Hebrew 
that one was taken for the other by the translators. The 
parable was intended to represent a period of intense heat, 
when the sun in supposed wrath set fire to the already 
gathered harvests of Philistia. All nations having a litera- 
ture have left on record traditions of intense heat, caused 
by the sun wandering from his course and threatening the 
world with a general conflagration, which conflagration 
they say will yet take place. This tradition has furnished 
material for scores of allegories which in various forms 
have descended to us. Jesus uses it to describe the speedy 
destruction of the Jewish' nation, under the figure of a 
general conflagration of heaven and earth. The burning 
up of the Philistines' harvest is a fragment of the same 
story. The story of Baalam and his ass is the same allegory, 
under another form and surrounded by other scenery. 
Baalim' was the name given to the twelve constellations, or 
in other words the plural of Baal. In this case he was the 
sun personified, or the united power of the Baals combined 
in the sun. The time chosen by the writer was when the 
sun was in June, in conjunction with the two stars called 
the asses by astronomers (see Jacob's blessing on Issachar), 
the same on which Jesus rode in triumph into Jerusalem. 
Baalim is represented as riding on one of them until he 
comes to a boundary (tropic of Cancer), represented by a 
wall, and at this point the ass sees the angel of the Lord, 



H 2 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

who with a drawn sword forbids his further progress. Here 
the ass is represented as speaking, in the same sense— that 
is, allegorically — that the vine speaks when it says : ' ' Shall 
I leave my wine that cheereth the heart of God and man?'' 
etc. (Judges 19:13.) 

''The Greek writers have given us the most complete 
record of the intense heat, and the dangers of a general 
burning that once occurred in consequence of the sun's 
aberration from his proper course in the allegory of Phae- 
ton. They say that the intense heat of that period dried up 
the blood of the Ethiopians and turned their skins black. 
Phaeton by craft obtained permission of his father Phoebus 
to drive the chariot of the sun for one day, but the prancing 
steeds, soon learning that a mere child held the reins, left 
-their proper course and dashed away toward the .north and 
soon threatened the world with destruction. Here follows 
a dialogue between Jupiter and the sun, in which the sub- 
ject, is condensed into a few words : 

Jupiter: Wretch, what have you done, to leave your 
chariot to be guided by a young fool, who has burnt up one- 
Iiaif of the world and froze up the other; in so much that 
had not I struck him down to the ground with a thunder- 
bolt there had been an end of mankind. 

Sun:. I confess, Jupiter, I was mistaken that I could not 
manage my son, nor endure the tears of a mistress; but I 
did not think so much mischief would have come of it. 

Jupiter: Did you not know the fury of your horses, and 
that if they turned never so little out of the way, a uni- 
versal ruin followed? 

Sun: I knew it very well, and therefore I put Tha-cton 
into the chariot myself, and gave him all necessary in- 
structions, but the horses not rinding their conductor with 
them took head, and he became dazzled with the splendor 
of the light, and frightened with the abyss he saw beneath 
him. But he has been sufficiently punished, and I also in 
his punishment. 

Jupiter: In the meantime, give Phaeton's sister orders 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 343 

to bury him on the banks of the Eridanus, where he fell, 
and as a recompense I will change them into poplar trees, 
from which amber shall distill, as a symbol of their tears." 

The change of names of the patriarchs had also an 
astronomical signification, and was simply the process of 
conferring a title, a practice that has been perpetuated. 
Abram was the first or father of time, and it was as the 
personification of time that his offspring would exceed the 
sand and stars in number, and it was by the addition of ah 
that he became the father of elevation, the word iah or ah 
denoting the most high. Isaac was more particularly the 
sun, the offspring of time. His name analyzed is Is-a-ac or 
Es-a-as; Is the fire, a one or first, and ac the root of Bacchus, 
which is the first fire or heat of Bacchus. Jacob analyzed is 
I, the se//-existent, ac, Bacchus, and ob, the serpent. Es-au 
was the first fire or first born ; but Jacob, under the name of 
the Father Serpent, cheated him out of his birthright, and 
had his name changed to Is-ra-el, the Father, Sun, etc. His 
twelve sons were the twelve months or constellations, and 
his daughter Dinah was the moon, the same as Diana of the 
Greeks, although spelled differently for a veil to the riddle 
or parable. 

"The parable of Abraham about to offer up Isaac is a 
beautiful myth relating to the vernal equinox. Isaac (the 
sun) was brought by time up to the same mount to which 
Samson carried the gates of Gaza, viz: the vernal equinox; 
but Isaac escaped and went on his way rejoicing, while the 
ram, or lamb of March was caught in thicket,, caused by 
the conjugation of the equator, the ecliptic, and the sun, 
and was allegorically offered upon the altar. 



Chapter X. 

' ' The serpent as a symbol deserves a more extended notice 
than the brief remarks yet made in this work. Serpent 
worship became the most widespread system of any simple 
symbol worship under heaven. He figured in heaven ex- 
tensively, and was the leader up of the hosts of hell. He 
brought in death and all the ills that fiesh is heir to, and yet 
he was the symbol of health, of wisdom, and of beauty.* 
"While the race was writhing under the effects of his bite 
through Eve, but more especially while the Israelites were 
dying from his vemon in the wilderness, he was crucified in 
a brazen form as a saviour from his own poison; and to 
accomplish this the Jews must needs, by the express com- 
mand of Jehovah, violate another command of his, viz: that 
which forbade the Jews to bow down to graven images. We 
have already hinted that the serpent, in consequence of his 

*The mystery of the serpent and the mystery of the 
phallas are the same. While the "serpent" is lifted up it 
becomes a symbol of health, vitality, immortality and re- 
generation. It is then a symbol of all that is good and true, 
wisdom personified, and the key to all the mysteries. Moses 
taught this to the people in the wilderness. When thrown 
down, he becomes the symbol of all that is evil, the symbol 
of all bitterness, strife, and all that comes under the word 
evil. Cursed is he who casts his seed upon the ground. 
Moses and the prophets taught this mystery but the people, 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 245 

form, superseded the other form of symbolical worship : the 
phallim worship of India and Egypt. The reptilejias him- 
self been both the dread and wonder of man in all ages, 
whether considered as an emblem of God or the Devil. As 
an emblem of the former, he has inspired a. religious awe 
and veneration ; as a symbol of the latter, he has ever been 
considered a sign of evil import. On the one hand, his bite 
has produced speedy death; on the other, he has possessed 
virtues that have arrested the march of the grim destroyer 
when all other remedies have failed. He is the genius of the 
practitioners of the healing art, symbolizing their skill if 
not their subtlety; also the cause of the most baneful dis- 
asters that torment the race. As a seraph in heaven, he is 
represented as unceasing in his praises; as a devil in hell, 
he is the uncompromising enemy of God; as the chief of 
police in heaven, he was ever ready to do the bidding of 
Jehovah, as a lying spirit in the mouth of Ahab 's prophets, 
or to tempt David to number Israel ; and as the arch fiend in 
Pandemonium, he is represented as incorrigible in his dis- 
obedience to the mandates of heaven. He is called by John 
(Rev. 12:9) the great Dragon, that old Serpent, called the 
Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the world. These four 
names are synonymous. Ancient astronomers have given 
the name Dragon to the great serpent of the pole ; the same 
that represents as having seven heads and ten horns. In the 
language of another, writing upon the peculiar fitness of the 
serpent as a symbol : ' Serpents were worshipped in Persia, 
and throughout the east, and had temples built to their 



instead of lifting up the serpent allowed him to crawl upon 
the ground and the result has always been evil. There can 
he no regeneration without the lifting up of the serpent. 
Men may preach and teach whatever they wish, there cannot 
be regeneration without the lifting up of the "serpent." 
This was the mystery of initiation and the main secret 
taught by the Egyptian Brotherhood and immediately that 
he had led his people from Egypt he tried to teach the 
mystery universally, with what results we know from 
history. 



245 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

honor, under the express titles of "the greatest of all gods, 
and the superintendent of the whole world." By their 
truly magnificent and silent motion in progression, they 
represented the elliptical orbits of the planets; and their 
bright scales the countless millions of stars, revolving orbit 
within orbit, yet never clashing; and advancing, as our 
whole solar system has (by the only late discoveries of 
Halley, Lemonnier, Cassini, and Herschell), been ascer- 
tained to be advancing, the whole together through infinite 
space toward the constellation Hercules; yet all guided by 
one purpose, all with one life instinctive. Their motion 
without the aid of limb, or any splitting or division of the 
body in any parts, presented the most lively type of the 
unity of the Godhead, his independence of all foreign sup- 
port or assistance, his strength in life being in himself. 
By putting his tail in his mouth the serpent is the emblem 
of eternity; by shedding its skin it is an emblem of im- 
mortality, so curiously and enigmatically described by St. 
Paul : ' not that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon. ' 
By its hissing noise it represents the voice of God, which was 
never distinctly articulate, but always very terrible, as 
Jeremiah assures us 'that the Lord will hiss unto them from 
the end of the earth : and he will hiss for the fly of Egypt. ' 
But, above all, its sanitive or healing powers rendered the 
serpent the universal emblem of health and salvation, and 
the invariably attendant symbol of the gods called Saviours : 
Hercules, Apollo, Aesculapius, Bacchus, Mercury, Adonis — 
all are characterized and known as Saviours by the ac- 
companying symbolic serpent." 

"The serpent having become a universal symbol, and with 
the tail in his mouth representing eternity, the universe, 
the sun, life and death, heat and cold, etc., symbolizing, 
indeed, a great variety of forces and passions, became a 
subject of a great variety of enigmas. One great art in 
ancient hieroglyphical writing consisted in a metamor- 
phosis of one being into another, or a system of metonymy 
by which, according to Walker, one word is put for another, 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 247 

while metamorphosis is a change of shape. Ovid's meta- 
morphosis, as a sample of the latter has stood the test of 
time, and is a. work that all should read who can look within 
the veil in which it is enshrined. The allegories about the 
serpent are of this kind : by metonymy the name serpent is 
put in for sun, whenever the writer needed it in his plot, 
and the sun under the veil was metamorphosed as the im- 
agination or whim of the writer demanded. He was thus 
metamorphosed into the seraph in heaven, and the arch 
fiend in hell; and according to the Apostle it is no marvel, 
'for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.' 
In Isaiah he is called Lucifer, son of the morning^ rendered 
in the margin of some Bibles, Day Star, the same name that 
is applied to Jesus in the New Testament, or as he calls 
himself in Revelations, 'I (Jesus) am the bright and morn- 
ing star.' Again, 'To him that overcometh will I give the 
morning star,' that is Lucifer; the name itself meaning 
bearer of light. This metonymy is illustrated in the case of 
the two Sauls. The name Saul, in the Hebrew Sheol,. is in 
some places translated hell. Saul, then, was a personifica- 
tion of hell, that is to say, the Devil or the serpent. "When 
the Jews were determined to have a king against the will of 
God, he served them as he does all rebels, — sent the Devil 
to reign over them unto the period of their deliverance from 
the wintry state, when Sheol, Hell, and the Devil, must 
needs give place to David, who by metonymy was the sun 
in his summer tour. His trouble from Saul typified the 
genius of cold seeking to destroy the flush of spring. The 
meeting of the two in the cave was symbolical of the birth 
of the year on Christmas morn, in that veritable astronomi- 
cal cave where all the gods are born, or where they rise from 
their three days incarceration. The other Saul was this 
same Sheol or Hell, and in his breathing out slaughter 
against the Church proved himself a worthy representa- 
tive of the lower regions. Journeying to Damascus he was 
stricken blind, and thus continued without eating during 
the mystical three days that the sun (Son) seems lifeless 



24 8 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

(buried) at the winter solstice. By metonymy Saul 
(Slieol) was the sun descended into hell, stricken blind in 
the winter solstice, and then coming up from the lower 
regions into summer he preaches the faith, the baptism of 
the Holy Ghost and fire that he attempted to destroy while 
in the wintry state. His name is now metemorphosed into 
Paul, an abbreviation of Apollo, who under this name was 
God in heaven, and under the names Ap-ol-yon and 
Ab-ad-on was the Devil, that old serpent in hell. The first 
inkling we have of the serpent endowed with speech in the 
Bible was in his celebrated colloquy with mother Eve. (The 
word Eve itself means serpent.) In this dialogue he affirms 
that if our ancestors but tasted the forbidden fruit they 
would become as; "the Gods, knowing good and evil."* 
God himself, or rather Jehovah the Gods, said among them- 
selves, 'man has become as one of us, knowing good and 
evil.' The serpent is represented as the adversary of God 
and man, from adversarius of the Latin. The word simply 
means opposite, the reverse to. A line drawn through the 
Lord of the Ascendant, that is, the constellation in which 
the sun 1 happens to be at the time, would pass through the 
Diabolus or Lord of the opposite sign. The term adversary 
of the English, Le Diable of the French, Diabolus of the 



*Here again we find the same mystery of the serpent. 
Had man not, by his desires, "fallen" into material form, 
man could not know either the good or the evil. Woman 
"fell" into the material form at the same time that man 
did, it was no serpent that tempted them but the serpent — 
desire — within themselves. After the "fall" into the 
material form, they could not know anything without the 
creation and here again the serpent "desire" tempted them 
and through the temptation they knew generation and that 
which was good or bad, the mystery of re-generation was 
now reserved to them and this could only be accomplished 
by the birth of the "Christ" which was told them could be 
accomplished. We here find that the serpent of good and 
the serpent of evil are one but in different manifestations. 
If the student will bear this in mind he can solve all the 
mysteries. 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 249 

Greek, came from the simple idea that the genius of cold 
and darkness is antagonistic to the sun, and is ever standing 
over as an opposer; hence all lovers of warmth necessarily 
look upon the opposing forces in nature as evil, or personi- 
fied into the Devil. An ox gives the favorite form, after 
which image modern theology paints its Devil, with his 
horns and cloven hoofs'; and yet this same ox, under the 
name of cherub and cherubim, is represented as the body- 
guard of Jehovah in heaven; and the snake, under his 
proper name of seraph and seraphim, unceasingly chant his 
praises. Most of the important grains — wheat, rye, barley, 
etc., derive their generic name from the serpent tribe. They 
are called cereals from Ceres (Virgo), the Greek harvest 
queen; the word Ceres being a compound of ccr, the first 
syllable of cerastes, the snake; and es, the great fire, the 
sun. The snake is peculiarly a dienizen of the warm regions ; 
in winter he becomes torpid, consequently if he had been 
banished to the north pole, instead of that hotter region 
after his rebellion, he would have been powerless for evil, 
and all the machinery of salvation, including popes, cardi- 
nals, arch-bishops, priests, missionaries, inquisitions, creeds 
and formularies, and even the death of God himself would 
necessarily be dispensed with, and the vast army of non- 
producers who now live upon the fears and ignorance of the 
people, would of necessity have been educated to follow 
some useful employment and preach by their living, instead 
of living by their preaching — symbolism which they do not 
understand. 

"We thus perceive the Devil in the possession of every 
variety of names that represent interchangeably the most 
exalted forces and sentiments, and also their direct opposite. 
He is called Lucifer, bearer of light ; he is called the Son of 
the Morning ; he is a seraph and seraphini, the cherub and 
cherubim of the heavens; he is the roaring lion of the 
zodiac, walking around seeking whom he may devour, — be- 
ing simply a metamorphosis of the lion of the tribe of 
Judah, who in his yearly travels devours or swallows up the 



250 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

stars of the constellations through which he passes. He is 
the accuser, but not called the false accuser, — the state's 
attorney of the universe, whose business it was to hunt up 
and' tempt and try the villains or supposed wicked ones of 
earth, and report to the Almighty, as he did when he pre- 
sented himself with the sins of God before his throne. 'As 
the adversary of light he is of necessity the prince of dark- 
ness. As the earth presents its whole surface successively 
to the sun, the illuminated half was the kingdom of heaven ; 
while the dark side, being adverse to the sun, was symbolic- 
ally represented as the kingdom of the powers of darkness, 
and literally called Hades, or the invisible world, or Hell, 
or the Bottomless Pit, (which, most literally is bottomless, 
there being no bottom nor conceivable limit to the extent of 
infinite space,) towards which the earth presents its adverse 
or diabolical surface; and it is none other than the language 
of the sun eclipsed by the earth, which we read in the alle- 
gorical complaint of Jonah, when swallowed up by the 
Coetus or fish of winter. I went down into the belly of 
hell, — the earth with her bars, was about me forever. ' 

"The Devil was also named Abadon in Hebrew and 
Apollyon in Greek. The first is a compound of Abba, father, 
and Don, the Lord; or Ab, father, Ad, the Lord, and On, the 
being, three names of God, the Sun; the' latter, the Greek 
name, 'is the same as the Latin Apollo, the well-known and 
universal name of the sun. A3 in the medals of Nero, this 
god is represented crowned with laurels, having his quiver 
upon his shoulder, and that star of Phoebus by his side, 
with the Greek words, Apollo Soter, that is, Apollo, the 
Saviour. ' 

"The serpent itself was imagined to be conscious of all 
the sublime ideas which its physical characteristics typified ; 
by a bold metaphor, it was wisdom itself personified. It was 
the Agatlw-Demon, or good serpent, encircling the mundane 
egg of the most ancient theology of Persia. It was, also, 
the serpent Ananda on whose mysterious folds the Creator 
of the world had slept upon the bosom of the ocean during 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 25! 

the calpa, or period' of 100,000 years before the Pourans of 
India," 

In Biggins' Anacalypsis is a representation of the Spirit 
of God moving upon the face of the waters, as copied from 
one of the ancient cruciform temples in India. On a bound- 
less waste of waters is a coil of nine high serpents, in an 
elliptical form, their heads rising from one end of the coil 
and hanging over toward the center, forming a canopy 
over the head of the sleeping God. This Spirit of God thus 
moving upon the face of the waters, is represented by a jet 
black individual, extended at full length upon this serpent 
bed, who is sleeping, with a crown upon his head to denote 
his princely rank. The serpents were thus the seraphim in 
which God rode upon the chaotic watery waste. "It is 
from the phenomenon of the serpent shedding its skin that 
Job, who was an Ophite priest, and whose name itself signi- 
fies a serpent, deduced his hope of immortality in that sub- 
lime, but never understood apostrophe, 'I know that my 
Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day 
upon the earth. And though, after my skin, worms destroy 
this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.' So the name of 
Eve, which Adam gave to his wife, 'because she was the 
mother of all living,' in the judgment of the most learned 
authorities, including the celebrated Br3 r ant, as quoted by 
him in the judgment of Clemens Alexandrinus, signified a 
serpent; so that if we had the true reading of the story of 
the fall, it might turn out that instead of its having been 
the Devil who tempted the woman, it was the woman who 
tempted the Devil, — an insinuation almost more than in- 
sinuated in that severe objurgation which Milton repre- 
sents his Adam as addressing to her after her fall. ' ' 

"Out of my sight, thou serpent! that name best 
Befits thee, with him leagued thyself as false 
And hateful : nothing wants but that thy shape, 
Like his, and color serpentine might show 
Thy inward fraud to warn all creatures from thee 
Henceforth, lest that too heavenly form pretended 
To hellish falsehood snare them. But for thee 



252 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

I had persisted happy, had not thy pride and 

Wandering vanity, when least was fit, 

Rejected my forewarning, and disdained 

Not to be trusted, longing to be seen ; 

Though by the Devil himself, him overweening 

To overreach. 0, why did God, 

Creator wise, that peopled highest heaven, 

With spirits masculine, create at last 

This novelty on earth, this fair defect 

Of nature?*"* 

"The very earliest sect of Christians was designated by 
the name of Ophites or Ophiani, on account of their paying 
divine honors to the serpent. In Egypt was a serpent 
named Thermuthis, which was looked upon as sacred; and 
the very name Thermuthis, Josephus tells us, was the name 
of Pharoah's daughter, the foster-mother of Moses." 

"The Devil has always been an object of fear just in the 
proportion that man has been ignorant and superstitious; 
and he has always sought while in the barbaric state to ap- 
pease and bribe him. Wie have before noted that God or 
the good, was fruitfulness, warmth and life personified, and 
that his grand emblem was the sun, which by metonymy he 
became the serpent, who with his tail in his mouth repre- 



*This all comes from a misconception of the "fall." 
Men may prate of the betrayal of women, but for all that, 
had it not been for her, man would at this day be no more 
than at the beginning of creation, for without her there can 
be no happiness and heaven itself could not exist without 
her. As to her falseness, this is another doctrine that men 
hold to, but not true man believes it. She is no more false 
than is man and in fact, far less so. As to the ' ' fall ' ' itself, 
no woman tempted man to his fall, the fall of both man and 
woman was mutual. It was simply the desire of the spirit 
for earthly forms and in that desire they ' ' fell ' ' or in the 
true version, they took bodies or forms upon themselves. 
The preaching on the fall of man and the betrayal of Eve 
may do for creedism but no true Christian, much less any 
initiate, believes that Eve caused Adam to fall, and if she 
did, he doubly deserves it for, the man who cannot master 
his desires deserves his punishment. The fall is simply 
symbolical as are all other of these mystical teachings. 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 253 

sented the disc of the sun. To the nations just emerging 
from barbarism, when agriculture was in its infancy, and 
the people had not the art or means to reserve large stores 
for a famine season, the question of food was the all ab- 
sorbing one, and they naturally adopted the method of 
worshipping the powers of fertility, and) as naturally depre- 
cated the wrath of the antagonistic forces. In symbolic 
writing, those animals that best represented the warmth of 
summer became signs of good import, and vice versa. There 
were exceptions to this rule, in consequence of some peculi- 
arity in the symbol; Cancer in summer and Capricorn in 
winter seem to be of this kind, but the goat being an am- 
phibious monster on the maps, or rather in the skies, repre- 
sents the wintry state, when there is a general commingling 
of earth and water. But fruitful virgins, twins, lambs, 
oxen, etc., ivere fit emblems of summer; while hunters, 
fishes, waterpots, etc., were indicative of winter. The 
serpent (for reasons already given) became the symbol of 
both winter and summer. Consequently we find him in 
heaven, and in the bottomless pit. As the Dragon of the 
pole, he is the genius of winter ; as the Hydra, he is higliup in 
the kingdom of heaven ; as a part of the constellation of the 
serpent-bearer, he is the giver of life, and as Scornio, he is 
the worm that never dies. In the form of a serpent, under 
the name of Python, we find the Devil first personified ia 
Egypt, overflowing the land, sweeping away their land- 
marks, cattle and habitations; next, when the flood was 
found to be a blessing in disguise, he is the personification of 
fever produced by the vapors arising from the mud! and 
slime deposited by the Nile; and again in lake Sirbon, amid 
the stagnant remains of the flood, filled with decaying 
vegetation, bitumen and sulphur, exposed to the thunder- 
bolts of Apollo, he is consigned to a death that never dies. 

"In this stygian lake in Egypt we have the origin of the 
burning lake, or hell, and in the adverse powers of winter 
originated the idea of a personal Devil. That he in his 
serpent form was an inhabitant of heaven, we have shown ; 



254 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

his fall from that high estate is altogether astronomical. It 
has been shown that the serpent was once a part of the 
Jewish cherubim. This serpent which fell from its high 
estate was, or rather is, the constellation of Scorpio, the 
Egyptian serpent. Scorpio has his domicile in October. To 
explain how that old serpent, the Devil, fell from his high 
first estate and became the leader up of the hosts of hell, 
king of the scorpions, locusts, frogs, and all the signs of 
evil, it is necessary to digress from the plain subject to 
explain what is termed by astronomers the precession of 
the equinoxes. It is known by all that the sun in winter is 
in the southern hemisphere, or south of the equinoctial line. 
It is known also, that in his return to the northern hemis- 
phere he crosses the line about the second day of March, 
sojourns in the northern heavens during six months then 
reerosses the line again in the latter part of September. 
That part of the heavens above the points of crossing, or 
rather the constellations in which the sun appears to us to 
be during the warm months, including March and Sep- 
tember, was called by all ancient religionists the kingdom of 
heaven; while the five cold months, or those below the 
equinoctial, were called Hades, Sheol, the pit, and other 
names. It was the hell of the ancients. The sun when it 
reaches its crossing point does not come to the equator at 
the same place at which it crosses the preceding year, but 
passes the line about one hundred rods from the spot at 
which it crossed before. It reaches the equator sooner each 
year, and consequently the vernal equinox passes through a 
sign of the zodiac in about 2140 years.* From this we find 



*It is for this reason that it is said that a new age sets in 
about every 2000 years and that at each such age a new 
Saviour is born to humanity. There is truth in this. As the 
vernal equinox passes through a sign each 2000 years, so 
also, in the past, about every 2000 years has there been born 
a Saviour or Great Leader of man. The last of these having 
been the Nazarene. At least twenty different incarnate 
Gods were celebrated in the East, and taught of in Greece, 
to each of whom is attributed, and justly so, a history 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 255 

that about 6000 years ago, the vernal equinox was in May, 
and the autumnal in November. Thus with the astronomical 
eye we perceive the zodiac to be a ladder reaching to heaven, 
on which angels of God are ascending and descending. (a) 
Since the first of May, 6000 years ago, the cherub or ox of 
April, with his bright clusters of stars r has clambered up into 
heaven, and for two thousand years the calf of April was 
the leader up of the heavenly hosts, and then the lamb (this 
took place at the time of the Nazarene), who had been in 
adversity down on earth — which symbolically was the lower 
regions — followed the calf, ascending to heaven, and in his 
turn became the leader up of the heavenly hosts. In their 
turn the fishes of February should have followed and taken 
their place in the kingdom of heaven, and the Catholic Lent 
have been transformed into a season of rejoicing ; but lo ! the 
modern astronomers ordained that the sign should follow 
the equinox; but to you who are not initiated the veil is 
over your heart, and you cannot see. If you would know 
what all this means you must join yourself to those that 
know and' the veil will be done away in this day of the 
Christie power, when men should dare to think. 

a. This in itself is the outer of that which is in the inner 
and the student must always bear in mind that for the 
outer symbol or meaning, ay, even for the astronomical 
meaning, there is also an inner meaning or mystery. Thus 
with the astronomical ladder there is also an invisible 
ladder for: "Souls of men that have enjoyed ages of 
progress, and attained to radiant conditions of celestiai 

similar in general details to that of the Christian 's Messiah, 
but the still more significant facts that these various in- 
carnations all preceded Jesus, the Nazarene, in point of 
chronology, and that the miracles attributed to him have 
been sculptured in temples gray with age before the date 
assigned for his birth, bring their own comment to every 
mind not closed against the light of reason by bigotry, or 
incapable of appreciating the truths of history. It is once 
again near time for another Saviour of mankind to in- 
carnate and this will be the coming "Son of Man." 



256 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

happiness, sometimes return to earth for material knowledge 
(the Christs), to study lower conditions of being, and 
gather elements of use, imparting in return the noblest 
teachings, and very generally associating their mission with 
some master mind of earth, through whom they become, by 
inspiration and heavenly influence, the promoters of 
mighty reforms, great upheavals of human thought, cul- 
minating in social, political or religious revolutions. Such 
were all the Saviours. 

On every round of that visionary ladder, whose foot is 
on earth, whose apex is in heaven — angels who have once 
been men, spirits who have lived and labored on earth and 
risen from the ashes of death, victor-browed, to a triumphant 
inheritance beyond; household "lares" — heart loves who 
have just left us, but still hover on the threshold they have 
crossed to smooth our rough and rugged path over the 
stones their torn feet have trod — all such ministers of love 
and blessing as these, ascend and descend on this mystie 
ladder, forming an interminable chain of love and harmony 
between the highest and lowest, connecting each and all by 
the links of sympathy, bearing up the tired hands that are 
dropping life's burdens for very weariness — catching at 
the outstretched arms that are tossed abroad in the agony of 
frantic supplication to the God of many creeds and nations, 
tenderly wafting up to heaven the piteous prayers that long 
ago they lisped forth in accents as faltering as our own, 
and returning inspiration for aspiration, peace and blessing 
for the incoherent appeals of human ignorance and im- 
potence. Such is the innet mystery of the outer, or 
astronomical one. 

' ' The vernal equinox is now in the constellation of Pisces, 
or the fishes of February. But while the angels of God 
have been ascending to heaven along the ladder of the 
zodiac at the vernal equinox, what has been transpiring on 
the outer side? what is taking place at the other gate of 
heaven? Jacob saw the angels of God ascending and de- 
scending. During the time that the gods of spring have 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 257 

been clambering into the celestial city, the gods of autumn 
have been falling; they have left their first estate, and now 
at the very point of time when the lamb of March comes up 
to the eastern gate of the New Jerusalem, Scorpio, that old 
Dragon which is the Devil, has slipt out of the western, 
and come down to the earth in great wrath ; has left his first 
estate, because by the precession, judgment was laid to the 
line and righteousness to the plummit, and he could not 
stand the ordeal ; but since that time he has been the leader 
up of the powers of darkness, is engaged in unceasing war- 
fare against the lamb of spring and against his seed, for 
winter seems to have an especial spite against all the young 
of the lamb species. If the old system of astronomy or 
astro-theology, had been perpetuated, by the regular opera- 
tion of natural law in the precession of the equinoxes, 
Satan, Apollyon, Baalzebub, Scorpio, would have regained 
his lost glory in about twelve thousand years from the 
period of his fall, by a repentance or change in his course at 
the winter solstice; and from that time during a pro- 
bationary period of about six thousand years, bringing 
forth fruits meet for repentance, he would have clambered 
up, entered in at the straight gate and taken his place 
where the Lamb is now firmly seated in his glory; but alas 
for Baalzebub, he had no sooner lost his first estate and 
become warmly engaged in the conflict with the lamb, and 
before he had enough of it to be heartily tired of the battle, 
the modern astronomers interfered and ordained that the 
sign should follow the equinox, and thus by a decree of 
science forbade the salvation of the astronomical Scorpio 
(Judas condemned without any chance of salvation) ; just. 
as the Church has by an un scientific decree ordained that 
Baalzebub shall continue the unequal contest through un- 
ending ages, and that all who have enlisted under his ban- 
ner through their grandfather Adam, unless they quit his 
regiment within a limited time and according to a priestly 
prescribed method' — even if they have never heard of the 
method — the same shall never have even & furlough, and 



25^ MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

never be permitted to quit the service of old Belial, be they 
ever so tired of the war. 

But now, what will happen when the new era sets in and 
the Son of Man comes with his doctrine of love and decrees 
that all men — including all Eves in the term — shall find 
their Christs if they will only seek for him within them- 
selves and thus become in truth "the temples of the living 
God." 



Chapter XI. 

These astronomical phenomena were not the only causes 
which were in operation to give the masses an idea that the 
spirit world was peopled by a. race of fallen spirits. Having 
adopted the belief that the good who had died were located 
in the Elysian fields, and the bad were shut up in the lower 
regions, to go no more out forever, they could not avoid the 
conclusion that all communications from the spirit world 
were superhuman, with the exception of the return of 
Samuel, Moses, Elias, Jesus and some others. The ancients 
had their oracles; the Jews had their wizards and witches, 
all of whom were alike except in the title bestowed upon 
them, and all of them were believed to be on terms of inti- 
macy with the daemons, and also were in the habit of dis- 
turbing the dead, as did the Witch of Endor. It was con- 
sidered a great crime to encroach upon the holy rest of the 
dead, hence in Judea necromancy was punished with severe 
penalties. Among the Greeks, most splendid temples were 
erected to facilitate the intercourse with the daemons* as 



*The ancient, as well as the vast majority of modern 
people believed that the daemon was some outside influence, 
force, or spirit, possibly the spirit of a departed. Such is 
not the ease ; the initiates nor priesthood never taught this. 
We have always contended that the daemon is the inner 
voice, known as the "still small voice" within its. It is the 



260 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

they were called, both good! and bad. In the works of 
Jainblicus (a Greek), we have a statement of the reason why 
many of the communications from the spirits were false. 
He affirms that if the inquirer rushes into the presence of 
the daemons without the preparations of ablution, prayer, 
etc.,* he cannot expect truthful answers. The phenomena 
of obsession by spirits was so universal in past ages that it 
formed a cardinal point of belief among all the religionists, 
including Christ and his earlier followers; and only in pro- 
portion as the Church has become semi-infidel, do they 
doubt spirit intercourse until the evidence becomes over- 



conscience of man, it is the great judge who always sits on 
judgment and man can, by the proper development, become 
so conscious of the voice within that it will speak to him in 
regard to all matters and warn him when he does wrong. 
This was really the daemon of the ancients but usually be- 
ing in an unconscious state they believed them to be outside 
spirits or forces. 

*This has direct reference to the course of training or 
development. Through such a course or cleansing process, 
both the mind! and body becomes purified and just in pro- 
portion that this is accomplished, in like proportion will be 
the voice within, the daemon of Socrates, be able to speak to 
man. This voice or conscience is really more or less active 
in ail men except the most depraved, for no sooner does a 
man •desire to do something which he knows to be wrong, 
than his conscience, the daemon, within, accuses him. This 
can be developed to such an extent that man can question 
it in regards to a.ll affairs of life and just, in proportion to 
his honesty, development and purity of heart, will be ths 
answers truthful. This is one of the paths of true initia- 
tion. In ancient times, and even in modern, men will try 
these things without any training or purification and the 
result is that they become unconscious with all their foul- 
ness, and obsession takes place. The true initiate does not 
need to become unconscious in order to question the voice 
■within, he is a conscious being. Obsession, while not as 
numerous at present as in the past. d,oes often take place 
and our asylums are full of such. This should also serve as 
a warning to spiritualists, not to attempt mediumship until 
after thorough purification. 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 26 1 

whelming, and then they adopt the old pagan notion that 
they are demoniacal, but all bad; the word daemon in its 
modern acceptation, by the masses, only implying a wicked 
spirit. There is also another powerful reason why the 
different sects believe in a personal Devil. They cannot 
but admit — because their system requires it — that there 
has been great mismanagement in the affairs of this world 
somewhere, and they must needs have a powerful an- 
tagonist of God to foil him in his good intentions, and it is 
immensely advantageous to have some smaller fry on whom 
believers can foist their own shortcomings. The modem 
notion in regard to the Devil and his rank and file, had its 
origin in the shades of paganism, and is perpetuated be- 
cause the standards of the visible Church requires it. 

"Our intense ignorance on the subject of government 
also tends to perpetuate the idea of a fallen race — fallen 
through poor mother Eve — who like the vermin of Egypt 
swarm in horrid broods around us. The silly nurse or 
parent who is troubled with a diseased or otherwise trouble- 
some child, must needs be furnished with the necessary 
implements of torture for mind or body, with which to 
assert and maintain dominion over the tiny subject. Fore- 
most among the horrid forms that are made ghostlike, to 
dance before the little stranger, is the great bear that de- 
vours wicked children, or some horrid form is conjured up 
to frighten the child into submission ; and when that little 
one in some measure outgrows its childish fears, other 
modes of torture are invented to make cowards of us all. 
The great black bear of our childhood's dread is trans- 
formed into the angel of the bottomless pit, and he is ever 
ready represented as most eager to drag us downward to 
misery so horrid, that if the teachers of the doctrine of a 
fire and brimstone hell, with all the horrid paraphernalia 
of orthodox invention that rests eternally upon it, could for 
a moment believe what they teach, reason must reel and the 
darkness of idiotic despair settle down upon their miserable 
existence. When men cease to look upon God as a vengeful 



262 MYSTERIES OF OSlRlS . 

being; when we realize that God is love and we — the works 
of his hands, the children of his care — are safe amid the 
wreck of matter and the crash of worlds, the Devil will be 
allowed to die a natural death, and be buried in the same 
grave with the trappings of sectarian rule and creeds. 

"The war in heaven, of which Milton has given such a 
graphic description, is but part and parcel of this stu- 
pendous whole of ancient mythology. On one side were 
ranged the good angels, each having el in his name, the 
Hebrew name of the sun. On the other were the cohorts of 
hell, the leaders of which at least were known by on, the 
term applied to the sun by the Egyptians. Micha-el fought 
and his angels, and the Drag-on fought and his angels, said 
the inspired penman. John took for his standpoint that 
view of the whole matter that symbolized winter and dark- 
ness by the term Egypt. John had about him all the pro- 
clivities of a Jew, and Egypt was synonymous, to Mm, 
with all that was dark, chaotic and villainous; hence that 
passage in the Apocalypse, "And their dead bodies shall 
lie in the streets of the great city, which spiritually is called 
Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified." 
We therefore find that the names of the good angels were 
the names of the summer signs of the zodiac, by their 
Hebrew names Micha-el, Abdi-el, Azra-el, etc., and the bad 
angels bore the Egyptic names of the winter, or signs of 
evil import, as Abad-on, Apolly-on, and others. The point 
of time chosen by the great hierophant, or opener of the 
sacred inner temple to the initiated, was that age of the 
world succeeding the passage of Scorpio below the 
autumnal equinox. 

' ' Belial, the Lord of the opposite, is supposed to have his 
domicile in that sign that for the time being is opposite to 
the sign in which the sun happens to be. He is always in 
opposition. Baalzebub had his domicile in Scorpio. The 
battle represents the conflict between winter and summer. 
The. great Drag-on of the pole, the region where eternal 
winter holds his carnival, was the proper leader of the 



OK EGYPTIAN IXBHAf ION. '26$ 

forces of cold and darkness, while he had for his aids the 
Baals and the Ons of Chaldea and Egypt. It was not until 
the lamb appeared — that is, after months of fierce conflict, 
— during which the battle raged and victory seemed to 
alternate, sometimes on the side of winter, until the sun 
ascending by slow degrees from winter, passes the equinox 
where he is crossified, and enters the constellation of the 
lamb, that victory finally perched on his banner, because 
the winter of our discontent is made glad, for the singing 
of birds has come, the voice of the turtle in the land, and 
Belial, Baalzebub, Appolyon, and all the attendant Genii of 
winter are cast into outer darkness, are shut up in the dark- 
ness of the earth's shadow until the sun again enters 
Scorpio, and the Devil (dark winter) recommences the 
yearly battle. 

"We now come to a brief exposition of the general scope 
of the Apocalypse. But in order more fully to comprehend 
its meaning, we need an insight into the sense of the 
mystical numbers, seven and twelve. 

The frequent repetition of the numbers seven and twelve, 
which run through and are held sacred in all the theologies, 
together with the numbers four and twenty- four, are among 
the many proofs that the visible machinery of temple wor- 
ship was drawn from the planisphere or tablature of the 
heavens. The planetary system is designated by the num- 
ber seven, it being the number of the celestial bodies known 
as the primary planets, in which the uncreated light dis- 
tributes itself, and in the center of which shines the sun, 
its principal focus. 

The Ether (Eth) which circulates through the whole 
universe was represented in the Pyreums of the sacred and 
perpetual fire kept up by the Magi, and each planet which 
contains a portion of it had its pyreus, or peculiar temple, 
where incense was burned as a representative or image of it. 
In the games of the circus, instituted in honor of the god 
of light, is manifested the religious genius of the B>omans. 
The sun had its horses, which, in the hippodrome, initiated 



264 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

the course of that orb in the lieavens. The circus took place 
from the east to west, till the seventh round was accom- 
plished, on account of the seven planets. The festivals cele- 
brated by the ancient Sabeans, in honor of the planets, were 
held under the sign of their exaltation. The Persians for- 
merly celebrated the entrance of the sun into each sign to 
the sound of music. The planets and seven summer months 
are interchangeably reduced throughout the worship of all 
antiquity. The chandelier with seven branches, in the 
temple at Jerusalem, and the seven enclosures of the 
temple; the seven gates of the cave of Mithra; the seven 
stories of the tower of Babylon ; the seven gates of the city 
of Thebes, each bearing the name of a planet; the seven 
chords of the lyre; the seven archangels of the Chaldeans 
and of the Jews; the seven days of the week of all people; 
the seven Sabbaths of seven years; the seven days of un- 
leavened bread; the seven sacraments; the seven golden 
candlesticks; the seven spirits before the throne, which are 
said to be the seven horns and seven eyes of the lamb of the 
Apocalypse, and consequently that they represent the 
planetary system that receives its impulsion from Aries, or 
the lamb, the first of the signs, or the constellations which 
opens the march of the seven spheres. And it would seem 
that the whole of the starry heavens had assumed a body in 
the image of the gods ; towns were built under their inspec- 
tion ; they were invoked in entering the battlefield, and the 
unfortunate victim was sacrificed on their altars.. 1 The 
ancient Egyptians led the sacred cow seven times around 
the temple in the winter solstice; the Bonzes every year 
carry seven idols into seven different temples; theBramahns 
had seven prophetic rings, on each of which was engraved 
the name of a planet; the Arabs gave to each star seven 
rays, and seven priests bearing seven trumpets, made of 
seven rams' horns, compassed the city of Jericho seven 
times for seven days, and on the seventh day the massive 
walls came tumbling down to the ground. 

The number seven sometimes means the seven planets of 



OB EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 265 

the ancients, sometimes the seven constellations of the king- 
dom of heaven, or those comprehended 1 in the arch of 
summer resting upon the two equinoxes. The seven 
churches, and the seven golden candlesticks, represent the 
seven warm months. The seven spirits before the throne 
of On, translated Him, and the seven angels- of the seven 
churches are the seven planets, as are also the seven horns 
and seven eyes of the lamb that stood as it had been slain 
(Rev. 5:6). It requires a knowledge of the qualities be- 
longing to each planet according to ancient starology, or 
astrology, to clearly discern in each case, in which the seven 
is brought into use, whether it represents the seven con- 
stellations or the planets. The seven seals, the seven 
trumpets, and the seven vials were various methods of 
stating the baneful effects of each of the planets upon the 
world 1 under the most malign influence of the hosts of 
heaven. 

"The number twelve was the most important of all 
mystical numbers. Twelve is admitted by all to be a per- 
fect number. "Why? Because the twelve signs of the 
zodiac, and what their inner meaning represents, compre- 
hend the entire circle of the heavens. All of the twelves of 
theology are simply various forms of representing the 
twelve houses of the sun. Thus we have twelve patriarchs ; 
twelve tribes; twelve apostles; twelve foundations to the 
New Jerusalem; twelve gates; twelve trees, whose leaves 
are for the healing of the nations; twelve Baals; twelve 
Ons; twelve oxen, under the brazen laver in the temple; 
twelve rivers in hell ; twelve mansions in the moon ; twelve 
shields of Mars-;- twelve stones in Aaron's breastplate; 
twelve pillars in the temple of Heliopolis ; twelve altars of 
Janus; twelve labors of Hercules; twelve great gods; 
twelve great angels in heaven; twelve rays of the sun; 
twelve months of the year; and twelve signs of the zodiac. 

"The seven churches were, correspondingly, the seven 
congregations of stars in the seven warm months in Asia, 
the land of fire, or the heat of summer. 



£66 MYSTERIES OP OSIBIS 

1. Ephesus, the Gaelish name of the god Mars, whence 
our English name for March. This church Christ threatens 
that he will come and remove its candlestick out of its 
place. By the precession of the equinoxes this constella- 
tion, which 388 years before our Christian era was the first 
of the Churches, has been removed out of its place, and the 
vernal equinox, which was then in the first degree of Aries, 
is found at present to have left the second of the fishes. 

2. Thyutira, that is — I tread on frankincense — frankin- 
cense, being offered to the sun, when in the constellation of 
the bull of April — thus April. 

3. Philadelphia — brotherly love — the unequivocal char- 
acteristic of the two loving brothers, the twins of May, thus 
our May. 

4. Pcrgamos — height, elevation, mamage of fire; the 
Bun's highest point of elevation is in this constellation, 
which dwelleth where Satan's head is. The hydra's head 
being on the celestial globe, immediately under this Church, 
Baalim's ass is in this constellation; hence Jesus says, 
"Thou hast in thee those that hold the doctrine of Baalim." 
June. 

5. Sar-dis, a word formed of the Ammonianprimitivesar, 
the rock, stone, or pillar; and dis, God, afterwards passing 
into the Coptic, or ancient Phoenician word El-eon, the 
sun, the being; and' naturalized into the Greek, Latin, 
French and English w r ord lion, that is the lion of July, 
who having been the lamb of the tribe of Gad or God of 
March, appears here as the lion of the tribe of Judah or 
July. 

6. Smyrna, a word signifying a bundle of myrrh, the 
offering made to the sun, in the virgin of August, having 
reference to the fragrant flowers which she holds in her 
hand, and to the milk pail in the hand of the Isis-onvnia of 
Egypt ; the Indian Isa, and the Grecian Ceres; exemplify 
that amorous compliment in the song of the loves of Christ 
and his Church, "A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me." 

7. The seventh and last of the summer months, that is of 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 267 

the Asiatic Churches, is Laodicea, the word signifying the 
just or righteous people, living, as you may see, in the scales 
of justice (Libra), the balance of September, when the 
weather is neither cold nor hot, but lukewarm; for which 
Christ threatens to spew it out of his mouth. 

And these seven Churches — that is 1 Holy Congregations; 
that is constellations that are in Asia; that is in the land of 
fire, are included within the two covenants ; that is coming 
together ; that is the two equinoxical points, when the sun, 
twice a year, in his oblique march in the ecliptic comes to 
the line of the equator, as he does in spring, about the 
twenty-fifth of March, and in autumn, about the twentieth 
of September, on what is or ought to be called Michaelmas 
Day. And these two covenants are respectively the cove- 
nant of works, and the covenant of grace; because spring 
is the season for labor in cultivating the earth, and autumn 
is the season for gathering in and enjoying the fruits of the 
labor. 

"The one," says the Apostle, "is from Mount Sinai, 
which gendereth to bondage, mid answereth to Jerusalem, 
which now is, and is in bondage with her children." That 
is, the vernal equinox, when that point was in Taurus, the 
bull, was the time for putting the ox to the plough; and 
during the reign both of that and the succeeding constella- 
tion of Gemini (her children), mankind are_ under the 
covenant of works, and there can be no cessation of the 
labors of husbandry. But the covenant of grace (favor), 
which is introduced by the fruitful mother of August, is 
Eleuthera, that is liber, free — Bacchus, the covenant of en- 
joyment, when the full ripened grapes are to be put in the 
agony (wine press) in the garden, and to sweat out their 
precious blood, into the cup of the fierceness of the fury of 
the wrath of Almighty God, — and "all the ungodly shall 
drink it." 

That part of the Revelations from chapter sixth to 
eleventh, inclusive, was an attempt on the part of the 
author to represent the effect of the malign influence 



2$ 3 MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

exerted; upon the earth and its people by the signs of evil 
import, (a) or the gods of winter. The student of Oriental 
literature can easily conceive how the prophet, having 
watched the starry hosts as they were marshalled upon the 
heavenly plains, and observed their various combinations; 
and under the inspirational influences of those angels, 
spirits or messengers who were in affinity with him, in his 
astro-theological studies; how he would or might be 
wrought up to a height of poetic fury, or inspiration, that 
could only find vent in the most high wrought language 
and sublime imagery. He saw the sun, moon, planets, and 
wintry constellations, in such peculiar conjunctions and 
relations to each other, that according to the science of the 
age, they portended most horrid calamities to the Jewish 
nation, or as is now generally believed, to the whole earth. 
His figures are drawn from the planisphere, and mostly 
from the zodiac. Thus in the ninth chapter, "A star fell 
from heaven ; and to him was given the key of the bottom- 
less pit." This star was Lucifer, Abaddon, Apollyon, 
Scorpio. This star (the constellation Scorpio) fell from 
heaven when it fell below the autumnal equinox; for the 
five constellations 1 below the equinoxes were in the bottom- 
less pit. He opened the pit, and amid the smoke that arose 
locusts, that had power as the scorpions of the earth, were 
permitted to torment men as scorpions torment when they 
strike a man, and this was to endure for five months. Here, 
then, we observe that the power and the nature of the tor- 
ment inflicted by the locusts, clearly point to Scorpio as the 
one who opened the pit, and the period that their power 
continued, viz: five months, under the leadership of Abad- 
don, whose domicile was in Scorpio, conclusively point out 
the reign of winter. The terrible imagery attendant upon 
these calamities was of the same frightful nature that was 
then most common in the teachings of the theologians, in 
the ancient nations to whom the Jews had so frequently 
been tributary. 

a. The state of the earth, atmosphere, and aromal emana- 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 269 

tions given off in different seasons of the year — all these, 
with their changing influences, contribute to form the 
essence of the embryonic being ere it sees the light. The 
inherited tendencies of mind, body and spirit imposed by 
parental laAV, impart to the life germs their own peculiar 
idiosyncrasies. The physical sustenance, mental tempera- 
ment, the very employments and thoughts of every mother, 
combine, also, to impress, with fateful images, their unborn 
offspring, but above all, the order of the planetary scheme, 
and the conjunction which every star sustains, first to the 
sun, next to the earth, and finally to each other at the 
moment of mortal birth, must determine the nature of 
every spirit, and shape the springs upon which hinge the 
framework of human character. 

Admitting the soul's origin in deity, and the astral 
spirit's origin in the solar system, how vastly momentous 
upon the newly born being's character and organization 
must be the solar and planetary influences which prevail in 
the hour of the germ's inception, through every stage of 
embryonic life, and at the very moment when, drawn by 
color and planetary influence from the darkness of its 
embryonic prison, it is launched in space as a living 
creature. 

Agea ago, the ancient astronomers discovered that all the 
vast crystal vaults of the skies, the illimitable fields of 
space dotted over with millions of fiery blossoms, seemingly 
so fixed, so calm, so immobile in their solemn silence and 
mysterious beauty, were all moving. Moving on in constant 
but still ever-changing orbits. The certainty of these stu- 
pendous changes was absolutely determined by the dis- 
covery of that remarkable motion called "the precession of 
the equinoxes," a motiou which, in a given period of time, 
varying between two and three thousand years, swept the 
blazing sun of the solar system, with all its planetary hosts, 
from one sign of the zodiac to another. Later on — in fact, 
up to our time — astronomical observations have deter- 
mined that all the stars of the sidereal heavens, gorgeous 



270 MYSTERIES OF OSIBIS 

fields of space, filled with the inarch of suns and! systems, 
speed on with a momentum so tremendous, that the mind of 
man shrinks back, awestruck, at the attempt to trace, those 
footprints of fire through spaces, wherein millions of miles 
are measured by hours and minutes. Whilst the external 
aspect of these spangled heavens changes but little to the 
eye of the observer during many centuries of time, the real 
permanence of the scheme is only apparent. "Only con- 
stant in eternal unrest, " might be traced in every glitter- 
ing point of the sidereal heavens. Ever the same in the 
fixidity of matchless order, ever changing in the spiral 
circles of ascending progress. This being so, as science 
proves it, how inevitably must the endless changes of the 
macrocosm affect the nature of the microcosm, and man, 
the world in miniature, partake of the infinite variousness 
which discourse so eloquently through the epic of the starry 



"There cannot be two planetary conjunctions in the field 
of space which, in all respects, exactly duplicate each other; 
and this is the reason why those creatures, launched every 
second into human life, under the influence of every-varj r - 
ing astral changes, must differ so widely from each other in 
all the essentials of physical, mental, intellectual and 
spiritual nature. As the planets seem to return to stated 
points, and re-enact their mystic conjunctions in the 
shining pathway of the zodiac, so there are recurrences of 
certain types of character, and duplicates of certain facial 
lineaments." 

These considerations may seem irrelevant to our subject 
but they are not ; they must be thought out and appreciated 
ere the unaccustomed thinker can apprehend /'why the 
motion of a single point of fire, gleaming through the im- 
mensity of space, can affect the character and destiny of an 
individual removed from its orbit by incalculable sums of 
distance; why all nature, animate and inanimate, moves, 
acts and speaks with a universal chord of sympathy con- 
necting the wJwle; why flights of birds, wheeling in the air, 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. fjt 

the motions of a dancing butterfly, a quivering sunbeam, a 
crawling worm, bumming insect may, discourse deep 
meaning in the ear of a true student of nature, and utter 
portents of immutable fate to illuminated scholars who have 
learned to interpret all the undertones of creation, and) spell 
out its hieroglyphical inscriptions. 

When we hear how Chaldean priests perceived the 
destinies of nations, in the smoking ashes of the burnt offer- 
ings; how RomanAugurs interpreted the issues of life and 
death from the flight of birds ; how Persian Magi read the 
words of fate inscribed on the starry pages of the skies; 
how Hebrew priests discovered mystic meanings in the 
glittering lustre of Urim and Thummim; we know that 
these men were simply natural philosophers, and had 
studied the occult side of nature with as much understand- 
ing, and more devotion, than the nineteenth century 
scientists accord to the mastery of the known and the 
visible. 

For thousands, aye tens of thousands of years, it was the 
office of the best and' wisest men of every succeeding genera- 
tion, to devote a lifetime to the study of nature., and that 
in her profoundest depths, and through all the mazes and 
windings of her supernatural relations with the visible and 
invisible spheres of being around her. Ever must it be 
remembered also, that the ancient philosophers and masters 
brought to this sublime study a heart as thoroughly pre- 
pared in initiation as the mind; a physique fitted by 
temperance, chastity and purity to allow full sway to the 
mind which inhabited it, and is so often cramped by in- 
harmonious physical states. This ivas the ancient in- 
itiation. 

The theology of the Persians and of the Magi, taught 
that the time marked for the destiny of man drew near; a 
time when famine and pestilence would desolate the earth, 
and when Ahirman (their Devil), after many severe com- 
bats with the God of Light, would be destroyed, and that 
then there would be a new people, and that a perfectly 



27 J MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS 

happy race would succeed this universal disorder. Such 
was the theological doctrine of these priests to the people. 
The astrological priest, to deter them from crime, presented 
in advance the representations of these evils, and the 
heavens appeared to him to give those indices by their 
aspect, and by the prognostics which he drew from them. 
It was thus that Jacob read in such representations of 
heaven what would happen to his children and grand- 
children. Great misfortunes were to happen; the earth 
was to be struck a terrible blow ; and, according to the Tos- 
cans and the Jews, signs in the heavens and on earth should 
announce their approach. It must be remembered by the 
student that what a nation called the earth, did not mean 
the whole earth as such, but had reference only to their 
people; for instance, the Jews called the Egyptians, or 
rather Egypt, a hell and their people only were the chosen 
people. Each nation had its own God and such God was 
not believed to be the God of other nations. It is thus that 
what these ancient priests foretold has come to pass to 
many of the ancient nations. 

"One of the most remarkable representations in the 
Apocalypse, is the woman clothed with the sun and the 
moon under her feet. By observing a man of the heavens, 
we see in the virgin of August all the traits and peculiari- 
ties ascribed to this virgin clothed with the sun. The two 
wings, which we see in our modern planispheres, were men- 
tioned in the astronomical works of antiquity, much earlier 
than the date assigned to the Apocalypse. She it is, that 
always gave birth to the new sun or God of the ancients, 
just after midnight on each Christmas morn. She was 
thus clothed with the sun, while the moon was under her 
feet. As she rises at the time of the passover she is ac- 
companied by Hydra, while the Dragon of the pole — symbol 
of winter — easts out of his mouth the waters of the equi- 
noctial storm, as a flood after the woman, but the earth 
helped the woman, for as she rises the river Eridanus sets 
in the west, apparently swallowed up by the earth, or John 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 273 

saj^s the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the 
flood. This the earth actually does every spring, astro- 
nomically, by the setting of Eridanus, and also by absorb- 
ing the last of winter's rains. "When the moderns became 
thoroughly initiated into astronomy, and understood 
judicial astrology as taught by the ancient hierophants, 
then, and not until then, can the whole of the Apocalypse 
be readily understood. But man can now, with his limited 
knowledge of the science, prove conclusively that astro- 
theology forms the groundwork of the whole book ; that the 
inner and the outer mystery is intermingled, and the whole 
woven together according to the pattern to be seen in the 
heavens. The whole had reference to that immediate age, 
and the calamities that were to come to the Jews during 
that generation, as predicted by Christ, for John was shown 
things that must shortly come to pass, and the signs and 
calamities so coincide with those mentioned by Jesus, that 
they pointed to the same occurrences and the same period 
of time. 



Chapter XIL 

"Before leaving this subject, we shall call the student's 
attention to several of the most remarkable occurrences re- 
corded) in the Bible. The sun and! moon arrested in their 
course; Elijah's flight to heaven; and Jonah's adventurous 
sea voyage, have puzzled 1 the modern theologians of every 
sect, and 1 the general conclusion has been that we must be- 
lieve in them literally, because God can do anything he 
pleases, and it is rank infidelity to doubt. While some of 
the phraseology of Joshua makes it rather difficult to recon- 
cile his miracle in all its parts with the astronomical mode, 
if we accept the comment that Gliddon makes in the 'Types 
of Mankind,' then the difficulty vanishes. Gliddon says 
that the phrase stand still is not according to the Hebrew 
s^ense. He renders the passage somewhat after this manner : 
'Abide thou swn m Gibeon, and thou, O moon, ? mtKe valley 
of Ajalon be most rcsplencUmt.' As before stated, the 
twelve constellations were in the Egyptie called On; conse- 
quently, Gibe-on and Ajal-on were the names of two of the 
constellations, for where else could the sun and moon be, 
except in the constellations? Supposing this battle took 
place at the full of the moon, we can see how Joshua, in the 
flush of victory, did give utterance to an exclamation that, 
coming as it did from their God-chosen leader, would be 
thought worthy of record, with all theflourishof trumpets so 



OR EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 275 

common in the Oriental style of writing. And Joshua said, 
'Abide thou sun inGibeon, and in Ajalon thou moon be most 
resplendent.' And thus the moon continuing most re- 
splendent in a country where the nights are peculiarly light 
and brilliant, when the moon is full, would give a day long 
enough, in all conscience, for Joshua's murderous purposes. 
The name of Elijah was composed of three monosyllables, 
each of which was the name of deity. El was the name of 
the sun in Hebrew, the same that Jesus called upon while 
on the cross, in that memorable passage, Eloi, Eloi, etc. 
Eloi is the possessive case of El. I was another name of 
deity, when he is represented as the great I am. Jah or 
Yah, Iah or Ah, simply meant the most high. Elijah's 
name, then, was the one smi, most high. He represented 
the sun passing up to the summer solstice. The sun was El 
at Christmas, Ell at the equinox and Elijah at the summer 
solstice; he then became El-i-sha. In the case of Eli's sons, 
who wrought folly in Israel, the sun was Eli until three 
days before Christmas, he fell backwards and died, and 
gave place three days after to his successor. Elijah is 
represented as going to heaven in a chariot of fire. This 
figure is in strict accordance with the ancient representa- 
tions of the sun. The sun had his chariot, his fiery steeds 
and his charioteer. 

"Hercules, who was the sun, ended his eventful life by 
ascending to heaven amid the flames of his funeral pyre. 
In Guido's celebrated painting of the chariot of the sun, he 
represents Phoebus, the charioteer, as a young man with 
flowing hair. Hair represented the sun's raj's, and were 
emblems of strength ; thus after Elijah ascended, his mantle 
fell upon El-i-sha, a bald-headed man, i.e., the sun having 
passed the summer solstice, from that period began to lose, 
his heat and strength. Elijah, then, was the summer sun, 
and Elisha the autumnal. There is another slight touch of 
myth in the case of the children and the two bears. The 
children were the twins of May, and the two bears were the 
two bears of the pole. If any object that there were many 



275 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

children, we answer that in all these ancient parables the 
same license was allowed and practiced as the dramatist 
practices to-day in writing his plays, the outside dress or 
garments were purposely exaggerated in order to more 
effectually hide the real sense. 

"Jonah's history was another riddle, and can only be 
solved by understanding the astronomical science. His 
name, like Elijah's, consisted of three of the names of the 
sun, i.e., I. the one; On, the being; and Es, the fire. His 
name in Greek, is, like the name John, spelled I-aon-es. 
Jonah's legend supposes the summer sun issuing his man- 
dates to the autumnal sun, directing him to preach re- 
pentance to Ninevah. In ancient teachings there were dis- 
tinct suns as there is, also, with the moderns. Jonah is 
represented as fleeing from the summer sun, and we find 
him soon among the storms of winter, until he finally is 
swallowed up by the great sea monster, where he cries to 
God from the belly of hell; and truly enough the winter 
solstice finds him down in the great deep among the fishes, 
and in the lowest department of the bottomless pit of the 
ancients. And he is not only among the fishes but he is 
compelled to lie still during the three days that end on 
Christmas morn, exactly in the bowels of the water goat, 
and in close proximity to the constellation of the great 
whale, the largest in the heavens. Here we see the reason 
why modern divines cannot tell what kind of a fish it was 
that swallowd Jonah. 

"The fasts and feasts of the Christian Church coincide 
in regard to time, and celebrate the same events that the 
ancients celebrated in their ceremonies. The Komanists 
and Episcopalians adhere more pertinaciously to, and re- 
tain more of the ancient holy days than do the other sects. 
One reason is that they are more learned in ancient re- 
ligious literature, and are more fully aware that they are 
only the offspring of the ancient Church, and on this is 
founded their only righteous claim to a great antiquity. 

"The ancients celebrated the birth of the new sun, or 



OK EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 277 

new year, on Christmas, and at early morn the Hierophant, 
or priest, exhibited a babe in his cradle to the multitude to 
denote that their Saviour, the new year's sun, was born. 
So do the Catholics and Episcopalians celebrate the Christ- 
mas, while the other sects wait seven days and then cele- 
brate the same event. Twelve days after Christmas the 
ancient had their Epiphany {Epi-plianes, from Plumes, 
the Persian name of the sun), for on that day it was mani- 
fest to the naked eye that the sun had commenced his 
journey toward the northern hemisphere. 

"At the vernal equinox the ancients held the great or one 
of the greatest jubilees of the year. The, passover at this 
period, and the feast of tabernacles, immediately after the 
autumnal equinox, or as it was called by the ancients, the 
feast of Bacchus, being the two grand feasts of all the 
ancient nations, as they also were of the Hebrews. The 
crossification of the sun at the passover was the sign of 
salvation from starvation; at this precise juncture the sun 
was supposed to escape entirely from the power of the 
Devil (the grave), and commence his reign in glory. 

"In view of this matter, as the precise period of the birth 
and death of Jesus — for he did live — is unknown, how ap- 
propriate for the believers in the atonement to fix his birth 
on Christmas, the day in which all ancient gods were born ; 
and his death at the precise period when the Jewish lamb, 
or the Egyptian calf, was crucified on or in the cross of the 
vernal equinox. The celebrated fast of Lent, and also the 
fast of Rainazan of the Mahometans, likewise based upon 
the same system as the others, has been thrown out of its 
proper place by the precession of the equinoxes, or by some 
unknown cause. The fast itself celebrates the passage of 
the sun from the constellation Aquarius, which is flesh, 
through the sign of the fishes, the proper food for the faith- 
ful, until it enters the constellation of the lamb ; the same 
being a period of forty days. Instead, however, of com- 
mencing at the proper time, the fast has become a movable 
one, and is dependent upon the phases of the moon of the 



278 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

equinox. The assumption of the virgin takes place on the 
fifteenth of August, the precise period at which the sun 
has reached the centre of the virgin of August, and assumed 
her — that is, absorbed her up in the glory of the sun, the 
heaven of the ancients. 

The nativity takes place, as will be seen by a reference 
to the Catholic books, on the sixth day of September, at 
the precise period when the sun, having entered Libra, 
passes below the great toe of the same virgin, and then her 
earthly career commences, she being born of the sun — that 
is proceeding from him, emerging from his rays; hence, 
the sun being God, the virgin is his offspring, consequently 
divine; and therefore it is most certainly proper and right 
for the pope to decree, as he has, that the virgin is im- 
maculate, spotless, pure, does not belong to a fallen race, 
and is not of us, as the virgin of the pope most assuredly 
does not, being the child of the sun. However, he should 
have said who this virgin was instead of allowing humanity 
to worship the astrological virgin, thinking, like all the 
ancients, that she had lived on earth as a human. 

Our work is finished, — and what of the lesson? Infinity 
is indeed without and within us, and we can no more 
fathom the abyss of matter than we are able to sound the 
depths of thought. The most powerful telescopes which 
show us the infinity of the vast, as the microscopes of 
highest power which reveal to us the infinitude of the small, 
the minute, do but aid us to grope our way toward a faint 
comprehension of that phase of thought whereof matter is 
but a phenomenal manifestation, and there is no instrument 
invented that will help us to delve into those abysmal 
depths of our being, the world of thought within us. 

Nothing raises the mind from its groveling senses so 
much as a contemplation of the starry heavens. There at 
least we obtain a glimpse of one of the manifestations of the 
infinitude, and we are able to form a faint conception of 
eternity when no longer bound by the fetters of gross 
matter. Eternal and eternally free in conscious identity, 



Oft EGYPTIAN INITIATION. 279 

renting on the bosom of the omnipotent, thought alone is 
being, and matter ruled by force its obedient slave. 

Let us here accept the assistance of one "who has spent 
his life in contemplating the eternal glory of the heavens, 
■which have ever been eloquent to him of the omnipotence 
and omnipresence of God. Let us endeavor to obtain a 
view of the marvels of the universe through the telescope 
of an eminent and celebrated French Astronomer, Camille 
Flammarion, who, with his vivid and brilliant pen will aid 
us to scale the dizzy heights, and when we return with him 
to the earth we think so solid a material will convince us 
of the immateriality of all that surrounds us upon it. 
"Stars and Atoms." 

"Last night, in the silence of the midnight hour, I ob- 
served with the telescope a Little fixed star lost in the multi- 
tude of bright celestial objects, a pale star of the seventh 
magnitude, separated from us by an almost immeasurable 
distance — which, however, we are able to traverse — and my 
thoughts fixed themselves on that little star, which is not 
even visible to the naked eye. I reflected that we count 
eighteen stars of the first magnitude, sixty of the second, a 
hundred and eighty-two of the third, five hundred of the 
fourth, six hundred of the fifth, and four thousand eight 
hundred of the sixth (which gives a sum total of about 
seven thousand stars visible to the naked eye) ; and that the 
stars of the seventh magnitude to which belongs the one I 
observed, are calculated to number thirteen thousand, those 
of the eighth magnitude are computed at forty thousand, 
that the sum total of stars of the first ten magnitudes brings 
us to the number of five hundred and sixty thousand, that 
of the first twelve magnitudes gives us more than four 
millions stars, and they exceed forty millions when we 
reach the fifteenth magnitude. 

"Without losing myself in the profundity of infinite 
perspectives, I attached myself in thought to that little star 
of the seventh magnitude in the constellation of the Great 
Bear, which never descends below the horizon of Paris, and 



280 MYSTERIES OP OSIRIS 

which we can observe every night in the year, and I re- 
membered that it shines eighty-five trillions of leagues from 
here, a distance for which a flash of lightning, travelling 
at the constant swiftness of a hundred and twenty kilo- 
meters per hour, would require not less than three hundred 
and twenty-five millions of years to traverse," etc., etc. 

Further on he says: "However deep the mind may de- 
scend towards the base of this material pillar it arrives at a 
final point, the void alone can be infinite, and from thence 
the said pillar no more serves us, as it rests without support. 
The modern Concept of dynamism, opposed to the ancient 
and vulgar idea of matter, has to-day a philosophic bearing 
unprecedented in the entire history of the sciences. It 
teaches, proves, and convinces us, beyond a doubt, that the 
material, visible, palpable universe rests on the invisible, 
the immaterial, the imponderable force." 

One Spirit fills immensity. It is the Spirit of God, that 
nothing limits, nothing divides; which is all, in all, and 
everywhere. Whose life is the life of the universe, and who 
controls and governs all things by His indwelling presence. 
"Who holds the mighty suns in their courses, and pervades 
and vitalizes every atom on the earth. 

God is our all ; the all is not our God. God is everything ; 
but everything is not God. Although we were to sum up all 
existences, the total would not be God; though we were to 
deduct all existences, there would be no diminution to the 
fullness of God. 

The divine being wears all things as a veil; yet would be 
in unabated glory without them, for the veil does not make 
the divine being, but the divine being makes the veil. 



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